


Getting Closer

by imperfekti



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Best Friends, Drama, Family, Friendship, Gen, Slow Build, Team Dynamics, Teenage Drama, Tennis, Wordcount: Over 50.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-06-21 18:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 56,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15564045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imperfekti/pseuds/imperfekti
Summary: The main reason Yagyuu had said yes to Niou's suggestion of the switch was that it sounded so difficult. He just might have been wrong about what exactly would make it so hard.This is a story of Niou and Yagyuu practising for the switch, from the summer of their second year to just before the beginning of the third. With lots of talking, tennis and karaoke (sort of).





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gnrbu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gnrbu/gifts).



> It's been a while since I've been so deep in this craziness, but 3rd season of Tenimyu and the D1 dynamics there brought me back. And since I'm back, why not dwell on it for 50 000+ words.
> 
> I have this story written until the end, and will hopefully be posting the following chapters in good pace as I finish editing them. Much appreciation to Meepu, franchaaan and artoftennis for valuable feedback!
> 
> This story is written for the Tenipuri Big Bang in 2018. The lovely illustration for this fic was created by [@kylie_pkisded](https://twitter.com/kylie_pkisded) and can be found in the corresponding chapter.

 

 

Around the end of his second summer at Rikkai, Yagyuu Hiroshi made a commitment.

The nationwide tournament had just ended with the Rikkai University-Affiliated Middle School tennis team’s second consecutive victory. The third years were leaving the team, and only Yukimura, Sanada, Yanagi and Yagyuu himself were going to remain.

The team was filled out soon after that. Jackal and Marui had been playing doubles together for a while now, showing good results. Kirihara Akaya, the boy who had joined the club in the beginning of the school year, had more drive, skills and confidence than even most of the older members.

Then there was Niou.

Even when Yagyuu had been mainly practising with the rest of the regular team, he and Niou had occasionally paired up for doubles, and much to everyone’s surprise, performed well together from the start. So when Niou asked him to do the switch with him, Yagyuu might have had several reasons to say no, but at least lack of competence and compatibility in doubles was not one of them.

The main reason Yagyuu had said yes in the first place was that it sounded so difficult. Before the trick would have any chance of working, both of them needed to master playing on their non-dominant hands. To do that, a lot of extra practice would be required. During the nationals Rikkai had just won, Yagyuu had been on the bench a lot more than Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi, and to keep up, he knew he needed to do more. There was a limit to how much you could practice on your own, though, and in that sense, Niou coming to him with his suggestion had been a welcome turn of events.

Another benefit Yagyuu saw was the extra experience in singles that he would accumulate from all the private practice matches they would need to play. As clear as it was that Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi could always fill the singles positions by themselves if they wanted to, the Rikkai team did tend to mix up its lineups from time to time, and so Yagyuu didn’t want to limit himself to only practising doubles.

So, even if Niou’s ambitious idea of passing as each other and shocking everyone with it in next year’s nationals ended up failing – something Yagyuu was half-expecting, for multiple reasons – he thought at least practicing for it could give him an added edge in the highly competitive Rikkai tennis team.

Not that Yagyuu thought practising with Niou would only be useful. Even though they had originally gotten to a bit of a bumpy start, Yagyuu could now even say he liked him – at least on a good day, when his little pranks didn’t go too far and weren’t causing too much trouble for their friends in the club.

So, with the agreement to at least try the idea out and see how it went, they started playing against each other regularly in private. When most of the others headed home after the afternoon practice at the club, Niou and Yagyuu set out in the early late summer evenings to continue their own practice.

Both of them agreed – anything related to the switch was to be kept a close secret before they knew it would work.

 

\- -

 

“Niou-kun, I’m afraid this is not going to work.”

“Oh come on, Yagyuu. It’s not that bad.”

The messy, white wig looked crazy on him in the mirror Niou was holding up for him in the cramped toilet stall. Crazy, unnatural, and not at all like Niou. Yagyuu squinted at him, straining his eyes without his glasses.

“I look like a cosplayer, not a person.”

“Ok, so the wig is crap. I’ll get a better one and it will work.”

Yagyuu was far from convinced, but before he could reply, they had to freeze and quiet down when they heard someone walk in and enter the stall next to theirs. While Yagyuu was wondering why in the world he had promised to even try something as ridiculous as this, Niou just kept staring at him from close distance, grinning, as they waited until they were alone again.

“Look, Niou-kun, I am willing to continue the extra practice together, but... ”

“Good,” he interrupted. “Then just trust me. This is going to be great.”

 

\- -

 

In the end, Niou did manage to convince Yagyuu not to back down from the whole undertaking, despite how disastrous he had looked in the wig. Though it was a bit troublesome when it came to outlandish ideas such as these, Yagyuu had to acknowledge that at least Niou did not lack in insistence.

While Niou had promised to take care of the supplies needed for their transformations, Yagyuu was getting started with his own preparation for the project – namely, clarifying for himself all the things they would need to do for it. One evening at home, after finishing his homework for the next day, he took out a piece of paper and started putting things down:

_\- Change of appearance (wigs, glasses / contact lenses, makeup, posture etc.)_  
_\- Learning tennis on opposite hands_  
_\- Learning a new tennis style_  
_\- Learning the right voice and manner of speech (dialect / keigo)_  
_\- Learning suitable behaviour patterns (how to treat team members etc.)_

When Yagyuu looked at that initial list he had written, he realized replacing a bad wig was barely a start. Even if Niou succeeded in that, the list continued with numerous other demanding tasks. Especially the last point seemed like a large task, taking into account how differently they generally conducted themselves.

He had vaguely considered that aspect before agreeing to the project, but looking at it on the paper, Yagyuu had a feeling he might have been in over his head. Still, he had just promised Niou to give him some time to work on the next step more, so Yagyuu couldn’t very well immediately take back his word. It wouldn’t have been a very nice thing to do to someone who was apparently to become his doubles partner.

 

\- -

 

The Rikkai school cafeteria was crowded as usual when Yagyuu and Niou got out of the queue with their meals. Taking a sweeping look over the hall, Yagyuu tried to find a suitable place for them to sit.

“Now, to find a table…”

“We could still go to the roof, you know.”

“The roof? Niou-kun, surely you know students are advised not to go there.”

Thinking it would be good to start spending more time with his new partner outside tennis practice, Yagyuu had invited Niou to have lunch with him. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like they would be able to get their own table. He did find an option though.

“Ah, isn’t that Yukimura-kun and Yanagi-kun? Let us see if we can join them. Please, after you, Niou-kun.”

Holding his tray with one hand, he gestured with his free hand for Niou to make his way towards a table where two of their team members were already seated. The two boys nodded to them in greeting when they saw Niou and Yagyuu arriving.

Yagyuu bowed, Niou didn’t.

“Good day, Yukimura-kun, Yanagi-kun. May we join your table?”

“Of course, please do," Yanagi answered, smiling his usual neutral smile. Yagyuu smiled back as they put their trays down and seated themselves opposite the two.

“Thank you. I hope we were not interrupting a discussion.”

“Not at all. Seiichi was just recounting his visit to a couple of galleries over the weekend.”

“You might have liked them too, Yagyuu. You went with Yanagi to see a calligraphy exhibition a while back, didn’t you?”

“I did. That was a wonderful exhibition as well. Can I assume that it was Yukimura-kun’s favourite French art this time?”

“You’re right," Yukimura chuckled. “It was the first time for me to see these artists’ work.”

As they got into a bit of a talk about the topic, Yagyuu glanced at Niou on his side, listening as he picked at his food. It made him a little worried – he, Yukimura, Yanagi and Sanada had had a lot of these kinds of conversations during their trips to the tournaments, but perhaps for Niou, it wasn’t so interesting.

Before he had the chance to try to include the boy into the conversation, they were interrupted by Sanada and Jackal arriving.

“Hey guys. Can we sit?”

“By all means,” Yagyuu answered, gesturing to the free seats beside them. Jackal sat next to him, while Sanada rounded the table to sit next to Yukimura.

“How was your weekend, Sanada?” the captain asked.

“Fine. I did sword practice at home.”

“Sounds nice. I just played tennis after the galleries, haha.”

“What about you, Kuwahara-kun?”

“Just helping out at the restaurant. It’s been pretty busy lately.”

Yanagi nodded. “That is good news, in such a competitive business. Still, please try to take care of the resting periods as I have advised, so your progress in tennis continues as desired.”

“Yeah. Maybe I should try to cut back on the weekday stuff…”

“Hey hey, everyone is here! Lucky, I thought I’d have to go to classroom to eat.” Marui set down his tray, fully loaded with food, next to Sanada’s. “But I was too late, they were out of apple juice… Oh, you have one, Jackal! Do you think I could have that? I really need something sweet at the end.”

“Don’t you have a muffin in there already?” Jackal pointed out, but gave up his juice carton anyway.

Sanada frowned at the exchange. “Marui, you should eat more protein if you want to build muscle!”

“Genichirou, on the other hand, would benefit from adding more greens to his diet.”

“I saw him eating edamame once,” Yukimura offered.

“I do eat vegetables sometimes.”

“Heey, senpai!”

Everyone at their table heard the loud voice from halfway across the hall, where they saw Kirihara, packets of food and drink wobbling on his tray as he rushed his way through the crowded cafeteria.

Oh dear, Yagyuu thought. It was only about to get louder when the youngest member of the new team joined them. Niou, sitting next to him, wasn’t saying anything.

 

\- -

 

A week after their first less than successful attempt at transforming Yagyuu into Niou, Niou sent him a message on Line.

_‘i got something new i wanna show you.’  
_ _'skip extra tennis tomorrow and check it out?’_

_‘Good evening, Niou-kun. Sure. Where do you think we could do that?’_

_‘what’s wrong with the previous place?’  
_

_'I think it’s rather obvious, isn’t it?’_

_‘what, you don’t wanna cram into the toilet with me again? ;)’_

_‘Please don’t type things like that.’_

_‘can we go to your place?’  
_ _'i wanna see your home’_

_‘I will certainly be glad to invite you to visit sometime. However, my mother will be home tomorrow, and I assume we will need a place where we do not have to worry about interruptions.’_

_‘and you told me “don’t type things like that”’_

_‘You do know what I mean, Niou-kun.’_

_‘Excuse me for suggesting this on your behalf, but what about your home, then? Even if tomorrow is perhaps not possible, I think it would seem reasonable for both of us to visit each other on the course of this project.’_

_‘what about the student council room or something?’_

_‘Unfortunately, it isn’t a secure option either. It is not possible for us to reserve that space for our own use, so anyone else might come in.’_

_‘huh’_  
_‘i guess we could come here then._  
_‘no one should be around.’  
_ _‘except my brother, but we can just ignore him’_

_‘If you think we can safely look at the thing you want to show even though he is home, I will trust your view on that. Other than that, I would be happy to meet your family members.’_

_‘uh, you really don’t want to.’_  
_‘anyway’  
_ _‘tomorrow after school’_

_‘Understood. I will see you at school and practice, first. Please let me know if I can bring anything.’_

_‘no need.’  
_ _‘don’t say anything to the others, ok?’_

 

\- -

 

Understanding Niou’s reminder to keep things secret was mainly about their school and team mates, the next morning Yagyuu told his mother he would be visiting a friend from the tennis club after practice. Happy that her son had made a new friend (and with such an impressive name, too), she gave him some money and told him to buy a box of daifuku from the traditional sweets shop on the way to the school, to be given to Niou’s family in the evening. Yagyuu didn’t mention they would not be at home, but complied with what she told him to do.

It would be the first time for him to visit Niou’s home. Before winning the national championship that year, the team had visited Sanada’s home and dojo once for extra training, as well as the training camp at Yanagi’s boarding house, but this was different.

Despite all the time they had spent together in practice, camps and tournament trips, what Niou had told Yagyuu about himself so far was limited. What he did know was that he had a family of five, that he had started tennis around the same time as Yagyuu, that he was good at darts and doing perhaps unexpectedly well with his studies – beyond that, it wasn’t very much, at least when actual facts went. Now that they were starting an undertaking that was aiming for them to be able to take each other’s roles, surely he needed to learn more.

Of course, Yagyuu had a wealth of his own impressions and thoughts as to who Niou was, but as he knew – from his own initial experience with Niou himself, as well as from all his detective novels – impressions could be deceiving. So, a chance to see some more of Niou’s background was a welcome one, and honestly he might have started to look forward to that more than to whatever it was Niou actually wanted to show him.

 

\- -

 

“Ooh, what smells so nice in here?”

Marui got more than a few strange looks for his question from all around the clubroom. Practice that afternoon had been particularly tough, and most people were still on their way to the showers. Niou had wanted them to get going as soon as possible today, so Yagyuu was already dressed and was being deliberately slow to pack his belongings as he waited for the other boy to finish up. Niou was grinning slyly at the redhead while buttoning his shirt.

“Well, if you prefer sweaty men...”

“Oh shut up, Niou. More like, the more terrible all you smell the easier I can make out something good.” Marui made a big show of sniffing the air. “Is it you, Yagyuu?”

“I wouldn’t think so.”

“No, you definitely have something here!”

Seemingly without any reservation, Marui followed his nose to Yagyuu’s bag, and before he was able to stop him, the redhead pulled out the box of sweets with a victorious grin.

“Ha, I knew it! What’s this, plum daifuku? You should share things like these if you have such a nice treat with you, Yagyuu! Weren’t you supposed to be the gentleman of the club?”

Immediately thinking of the reason he had bought the box for, Yagyuu hesitated. Not even getting a word of scolding out for Marui’s bad manners, he instinctively glanced at Niou, meeting his eyes.

He needed an excuse.

“Marui-kun, I apologise, I…”

Niou interrupted him. “It’s for me, isn’t it?”

“For you?” Marui repeated, looking suspiciously at both of them. “Why would he give something like this to you?”

Before Yagyuu managed to say anything, Niou grabbed the box from Marui’s hands and casually threw his arm over Yagyuu’s shoulders.

“Really, you shouldn’t have.” Slouching against Yagyuu almost enough to threaten his balance, Niou smirked at Marui. “And you should watch out. I’ve been showing Yagyuu some volley tricks lately. He’ll be better than you soon.”

“Ha, as if! No offense, Yagyuu, but no-one’s better at volley than me around here.”

As Marui and Niou got on with their argument, Yagyuu raised his hand to adjust his glasses in order to hide a small sigh of relief. Thankful for the successful diversion of attention, he thought maybe he had something to learn from Niou.

“What’s the commotion in here about?”

When Yukimura suddenly showed up, Marui and Niou quieted down for a moment, perhaps expecting to be called back to continue practice. Taking the change of mood in, Yagyuu thought for a second before taking the box of daifuku from Niou’s hand and withdrawing from under his arm to face their captain.

“Yukimura-kun, with your approval, I thought I would share some treats with the team today. As a gesture of appreciation for everyone’s recent good work.”

As Marui cheered behind Yagyuu, Yukimura smiled in a way that was probably meant to be nice.

“Well, I suppose there has been at least _some_ progress lately.”

 

\- -

 

“Was it really wise to say such a thing to Marui-kun? I do have confidence in my volleys, but you know they are nothing extraordinary compared to his.”

“So, just learn something flashy to annoy him a bit? Should only take you a week or two.”

Sharing the sweets with the team had taken a while – Marui had made another scene trying to pester Jackal and Sanada for their shares – but finally they were out of the clubroom and on their way to the station.

Thankfully, worst of the crowded tourist season was already over, and Kamakura had quieted down a little bit. It was still very warm, and they were trying to walk on the shadowed sides of the streets, so that Niou wouldn’t melt – his own choice of word.

Due to what had happened in the club room, Yagyuu needed to buy a new gift. It would be less nice than the one he bought in the morning, but he still had some money from his mother left, so he hoped it would still be fine.

As they approached one of the sweets shop close to the station, Yagyuu started getting his wallet from his bag.

“Would you mind waiting a small moment while I get a replacement for the lost present?”

“So it was for me. Didn't I already tell you you don't need to do that?”

“Yes, I do. And it’s for your family, as well, since I'm intruding for the first time.”

As Niou scratched his neck, Yagyuu thought he almost looked... embarrassed?

“Ugh, you're making a way too big deal of this. It's not like they're going to be there or care.”

“Even so. It’s just basic manners, Niou-kun.”

 

\- - 

 

After a short ride on a packed local train, they got off at Niou’s stop and continued on their way, walking through the narrow residential streets lined with occasional small shops. Niou warned him there might not be any food waiting for them, so they briefly stopped at a small food store to pick up a couple of onigiri and bottles of cold tea.

As they paid for their purchases, Yagyuu came to wonder if this was a usual occurrence for Niou – his family not being home, no food prepared for him... At the club, he had noted the other boy was skinny, but until now, hadn’t considered a possibility he should perhaps worry about his home life because of it. Niou had just said they didn’t care, hadn’t he?

Deciding not to say anything before he knew more, Yagyuu made up his mind to keep his eyes open for any other concerning details when they made it to his house.

Their destination was a compact seeming house near the end of an alley. With two floors, it was built close to the similar houses next to it and looked older and smaller than Yagyuu’s. A couple of bicycles were leaning against the wall, and a few potted plants were placed by the door, some of them dead, some alive.

In word, it looked quite normal. Out of habit, Yagyuu wanted to say something nice.

“This seems like a quiet neighbourhood.”

“Yeah, all normal and boring. What were you expecting?”

“I wasn’t suggesting anything like that.”

“So you say,” Niou replied with a shrug. For a moment Yagyuu wondered if he had somehow accidentally offended him, but Niou proceeded to let them in without any further comment.

Opening the door, Niou stepped in before Yagyuu.

“I’m home.”

“Excuse me for intruding.”

Unlike in Yagyuu’s home, there wasn’t an immediate response. Well, Niou had said his family wouldn’t be home, save perhaps for his younger brother. While there was no sight of him, Yagyuu did note the indoors of the house seemed, at first glance, clean and ordinary.

As they were taking off their shoes in the entry, there was a sound of a door opening, and then a small figure peeked into the hallway from a crack of a door.

As much as Yagyuu could see, it was a perfectly ordinary looking young boy with black hair. He didn’t say anything, just stared at Yagyuu.

Niou addressed the boy. “Hey. Mom went out earlier, right?”

Spoken to by his brother, the boy looked briefly at Niou, before returning his gaze back to Yagyuu.

“Yup. She said she has a date with...”

“Uh, I don’t want to know more.”

A date? Were Niou’s parents divorced? Not that it was that uncommon these days, but still, Yagyuu made a mental note about the words just exchanged.

As the younger boy kept staring him, and Niou wasn’t introducing him, Yagyuu decided to act on his own. Inviting himself to step up from the lowered entry, he made a little bow.

“Good day. Nice to meet you, I am Yagyuu Hiroshi, from the same tennis team as Niou-kun.”

“Don’t waste your manners on him. Come on, let’s go upstairs. You stay down here and watch the tv or something.”

It seemed insensitive to say such a thing to such a small boy, but Yagyuu bit back on questioning him about it – they were in Niou’s home, after all. At least the boy himself didn’t look hurt, and just kept watching Yagyuu with such interest that it was almost making him a bit uncomfortable. Perhaps he was an observer, like his brother.

“Should I leave these in the kitchen?” he asked instead, holding up the paper bag with newly bought treats.

“Don’t, otherwise that brat will eat it all and I won’t get any.”

Feeling a bit bad to leave the boy with such a brief exchange, Yagyuu made another bow before following Niou, who was already making his way up the stairs. “Please excuse me.” The boy waved wordlessly at him.

Niou’s room was one of three on the second floor, on the side of the street. When Yagyuu stepped in, Niou locked the door after them.

“Your house has locks on the doors?”

“What, yours doesn’t?”

Niou threw his tennis bag on the floor and waved his hand vaguely at the room as he made it to his closet.

“Anyway, I need to prep myself now, so don’t look at me until I say.”

“Ah, alright.”

Yagyuu first placed his own tennis bag leaning against the wall by the spot where Niou had dropped his, and his school bag and the paper bag from the sweets shop next to it. The room wasn’t very big, and Yagyuu didn’t want to get too nosy, but he did need to look somewhere to avoid seeing Niou.

As he had kind of expected, the room was somewhat messy. It was also more traditional than Yagyuu’s, with an unmade futon on the floor and opened shouji windows with a few holes in the paper, giving the impression of a house that was on the older side. A small fan was placed by the pillow, reminding him of all the times Niou had complained about the heat during the tournament in the summer, when Niou and other club members had been watching Yagyuu and the team play. Having felt sympathy for him, Yagyuu had bought him ice cream once or twice during some of the hotter days, and when Marui had found that unfair, had been pressed to do so for him as well.

Mostly hidden under a pile of miscellaneous clothing on the floor, Yagyuu noticed some papers, showing bits like sketches. Plans for tricks, perhaps? Come to think of it, Niou hadn’t orchestrated so many of them lately. At least not anything major. Yagyuu thought that was for the better – he still remembered how angry Sanada had been the time when the water in the clubroom showers had been dyed pink one day during the cherry blossom season. Yukimura had found it amusing enough, but nevertheless had asked Yagyuu to keep an eye on Niou so that he wouldn’t go too far with it. Yagyuu himself had been slightly dissatisfied to be in any way associated with the issue – he was never in on Niou’s pranks, and didn’t consider himself accountable for them.

Of course, if it were to work out, the one currently under preparation would be a big exception. But it was only for tennis, so it was different.

“Ok, ready. You can look now.”

Yagyuu still mostly expected it wouldn’t work. Another person couldn’t really become similar enough with someone who was so…

Different. He looked different.

The bleached hair was gone. Now, what was framing his face was dark hair, cleanly parted at the side, as well as unassuming, simple glasses. His gaze was clear and his expression was set on a subtle, polite smile.

He didn’t look at all like Niou.

Taking in Yagyuu’s obvious surprise, Niou broke out in a grin, and some of the illusion disappeared.

“Heh, you’re impressed! I knew you’d be!”

Yagyuu cleared his throat.

“I admit this is quite a transformation.”

“Right? I totally look like you.”

“At least the wig is somewhat decent this time. But your expression is hardly like me.”

“Yeah? You’re more like this, right?”

Niou put on a serious face, furrowing his brows and pinching his lips. It looked rather ridiculous – at first, it made him frown too, only to immediately realize he was proving Niou’s point. When he couldn't help laughing instead, Niou wasn't able to hold the expression either and laughed with him.

As they collected themselves, Yagyuu focused to take another good look at him. Niou let him, straightening his back as if to take being observed.

He had buttoned his school shirt all the way up and tightened his necktie – something he never did at school, to some annoyance of Yagyuu’s fellow public morals committee members.

The hair really did a lot. Not only was it a big change in itself, but the contrast also made his skin look bright in comparison.

Looking closer, Yagyuu noticed the glasses Niou was wearing weren’t actually exactly the same as his, but they too changed his impression a lot, making him look more serious and respectable.

Niou was right: Yagyuu was impressed.

Still, they were two different people, and as soon as you started looking closely, it wasn’t difficult to tell them apart. The wig was still a wig, and even if it made Niou look like something other than himself, Yagyuu didn’t fully see himself in him, either.

Yet with Niou quietly letting him look at him, and the tug on the corners of his mouth clearly showing how pleased he was with himself and the reaction he got, Yagyuu was having a difficult time wording his doubts this time.

Just when he was about to open his mouth, Niou stepped closer, and reached out his hand to pull the glasses from Yagyuu’s face.

“Hey…” he started, but got caught up watching Niou replace his previous glasses with Yagyuu’s.

“Look. We’ll make this work.”

 

\- -

 

In the end, Yagyuu wasn’t able to clearly refute Niou – something that was becoming a pattern, he noted with some concern.

Niou took the wig off soon, and they started browsing the internet for a new one for Yagyuu, Niou sitting on his futon and Yagyuu declining out of politeness, opting for the floor instead.

Finally deciding on something that seemed suitable, Niou ordered it with a credit card info that was already saved on his phone (“don’t worry about it," he told Yagyuu when asked about it – and Yagyuu did anyway, making a mental note he would need to pay the amount back to Niou).

After that, the discussion moved on to the easier topic of tennis: what they should practice next, when and how to go about it. Another while passed with that talk, and soon they found themselves hungry. Niou managed to convince Yagyuu to sit next to him on his futon so they could watch videos from his phone while they ate their onigiri.

As they were eating while watching a collection of the the best doubles moments from the previous Australian Open, Yagyuu revisited his earlier thoughts about Niou’s homelife. No proper dinner, the cold sounding exchange between the brothers, locks on the doors, Niou’s use of credit card, his mom out on a date… To Yagyuu, it seemed like there might be some problem in the family. 

Should he just ask? After all, this wasn’t something that could be talked about at school, so he should probably use this chance while he had it.

As he folded the emptied plastic wrapped for the onigiri, he glanced at Niou from the side of his eye. It looked like he was concentrated on the match, the rice ball half eaten in his hand.

“Thank you for the meal.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“So, Niou-kun. I was actually wondering, with regards to your family...”

He had barely finished the sentence, when they heard the door on the first floor opening and closing. Niou suddenly got a lot more alert than he had just been.

“Oh, shit. Are they here?”

Somewhat startled, Yagyuu got up after Niou, who was already by the window, taking a look down to the street. Taking in the change in Niou’s behaviour, it looked like maybe he had been right to worry, after all.

“Your mother?”

“Yeah, and dad.”

Oh. So he was around, after all?

“Is this a problem for some reason?”

Niou turned to look at him, looking uncharastically troubled. “Yeah, I really don’t want you to see them. They weren’t supposed to be here in like two hours.”

“Oh.”

“Uh, do you think you can get down through a window?”

“Excuse me?”

A female voice could be heard from downstairs.

“Masaharu! Come here with your friend!”

What a vexing situation. Yagyuu could see Niou was agitated about the turn of events, but not knowing what exactly was the issue, wasn’t quite ready to start climbing out the window yet.

“It seems as though we are expected to go down. Listen, Niou-kun, if there is some problem, I will definitely leave, but I believe I should at least greet them on the way out, shouldn’t I?”

Niou didn’t look very excited, but seemed to give up on the grand escape plans.

“Ugh, I guess you’ll have to. Sorry, Yagyuu. Let’s tell them you’re leaving.”

“I understand. Let me just get my things.”

Feeling nervous as he collected his bags, Yagyuu tried to calm himself down. From the way to Niou’s house, he had wondered if something was wrong, but at any point he hadn’t assumed he would come face to face with the parents today.

They couldn’t be too bad, right? Surely Niou would have told him by now if they were?

When they made it downstairs, a woman, apparently Niou’s mother, was waiting for them in the small lobby. Black-haired, dressed in a green one-piece, and with a friendly smile on her face, she looked rather excited and started talking before neither Niou or Yagyuu had the chance to say anything.

“Ah, there you are! We were worried we wouldn’t make it in time when Takehiko-chan texted us Masaharu has brought a friend home. Darling, you come here too!”

“Uh, mom…”

Huh?

From the corner of Yagyuu’s eye, Niou looked rather uncomfortable.

Yagyuu himself was confused. Contrary to what Niou’s nervousness and the cues from before had led him to expect, the first impression of Niou’s mother seemed… really nice.

Before he had more time to process, a somewhat thin man in his early 40’s stepped in to join them in the hallway. Likewise nice looking and casually dressed, he too seemed to be on a good mood.

“Hey, good evening. I’m Masaharu’s father, nice to meet you.”

Addressed directly like that, Yagyuu recovered enough from his surprise to remember his manners.

“Ah, good evening,” he echoed, bowing to both parents. “Please excuse my bothering you at such a late time. My name is Yagyuu Hiroshi.”

The woman mirrored the bow with a big smile on her face. “No no, it’s not late at all! Hiroshi-kun, right? So you are our Masaharu’s friend from the tennis club! He mentions you every now and then, so we have been really hoping to see you!”

“Mom, please, can you not?”

“Uh, no, the pleasure is mine…”

“I’ve understood you two have been playing some doubles together?” the man asked. “Thanks for putting up with this boy. I hope he’s not too much of a bother to everyone.”

This was not what he had prepared for. His own musings aside, hadn’t Niou been implying his parents were not very involved? Slightly taken back by the warm interest with which he was being treated, Yagyuu kept bowing lightly as we answered them.

“Not at all, Niou-kun is definitely a respected member of our team, and we are all grateful to have him with us.”

“Is that so?” The man smiled at the reassurance, and gave an amused look at this son who was looking increasingly annoyed and embarrassed by the whole situation. “Well, you seem like a well-mannered boy, so we’ll be happy if ours can learn something from you. So please keep looking after him from now on too.”

“Okay, so Yagyuu was actually going to be leaving now.”

“Don’t be rude now, Masaharu!” his mother scolded him. “Hiroshi-kun, we were just about to make some tea and have something to eat. If you’d like, won’t you stay for a bit more? We’d love to get to know you a little better.”

Niou shot him a warning look, and Yagyuu nodded.

“Thank you, that’s very kind of you to offer. Unfortunately I’m afraid I’m already being expected at home, so I will have to decline today.”

Remembering he had something to offer as thanks, Yagyuu shuffled his bags to hold out the earlier bought bag of treats with two hands to Niou’s mother. “Apologies, but please accept this little gift from me and my parents.”

“Oh, there was no need, but that is very sweet!” The woman took the offered paper bag and peeked inside. “Daifuku? How lovely! Are you sure you can’t stay to have some with us?” she asked, touching Yagyuu’s arm in a familiar, inviting gesture.

“Mom…”

“Unfortunately I really must excuse myself for today. But thank you. Perhaps next time?”

Going by the look Niou gave him, he didn’t seem too happy about the suggestion. If his mother saw, she ignored it.

“Yes, please visit us soon again! But in that case, let us at least take you home.”

“Yeah, of course, I will drive you home. Let me get our car!”

Try as he did, Yagyuu was unable to refuse the offer. At that moment, he felt like he was being shown a glimpse of where Niou’s tendency to not take a no for an answer had come from.

 

\- -

 

When Yagyuu was finally back in his own room, a big sigh escaped from his lips.

Niou’s father had driven him home, asking all kinds of things about tennis, school, his family, and how Niou was really doing in the team. As they had talked, it had really become clear to Yagyuu that while Niou himself often evaded talking about his parents and made it sound like they didn’t care if he stayed out late practising with Yagyuu or what he was up to in general, the opposite seemed to be true.

As much as Niou had been unhappy about the situation, Yagyuu was now glad it had happened. Otherwise, he might have ended up with a seriously mistaken picture of the Niou family, and consequently, of Niou himself.

After having been told he was always welcome to their home, Yagyuu had said goodbye and seen the car drive off before going inside. He was quite late to join the dinner table, but no big issue was made of it, as their family was used to unmatching and changing schedules, with father working at the hospital and everyone else with their own hobbies, cram school and volunteering responsibilities. This time Yagyuu had his meal with only his mother and younger sister, both of whom wanted to hear everything about how the visit to his new friend’s home had went. Yagyuu shared the the parts that were suitable to be shared.

When he was finally ready to go to sleep after a quick shower and uncharacteristically hastily done homework, it was already well past his usual bedtime.

Under the blanket, he took a look at this phone.

Niou had sent him several messages on Line.

_‘lol my family is so lame’_  
_‘did dad say anything stupid after you guys left?’_  
_‘don’t believe anything he said about me’_  
_‘he was so into you lol’  
_ _‘are you already sleeping?’_

The messages had been sent 20 minutes ago. Yagyuu considered replying in the morning since it was so late, but thought it might be rude to postpone, since he had already read the messages.

_‘I am just about to go to sleep. Thank you for today. Your family seems very nice.’_

It took half a minute before the app showed Niou had read the message, and a bit more until he replied.

_‘they want you to come over again’_  
_‘so yeah like you saw they’re really lame but if we need to do something for the thing we can do it here i guess.’  
_ _‘or maybe not if they’re all over you like that every time lol’_

_‘I would also like to visit again. Actually, it seems like my family will also want to invite you for dinner some time. Let us talk about a suitable timing later, if you want to, of course.’_

_‘oh ok.’  
_ _‘yeah let's see’_

_‘Yes. Anyway, I think I will need to sleep now. Good night, and I will see you tomorrow.’_

_‘night yagyuu.’_

When he fell asleep, he was smiling. His task to learn to know Niou better was off to a decent start.


	2. Chapter 2

 

In a month, both Niou and Yagyuu had come quite some way in improving their tennis on their non-dominant hands.

The lack of power and control had been frustrating at first. But just like when first starting tennis, progress was relatively fast, and seeing the improvement was gratifying. The results from the added training made Yagyuu feel more self-confident at the club as well. He knew at least Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi were training a lot outside the club practice, so doing the same thing as those exceptional people gave him some kind of pride.

But it wasn’t only that. Practising together with Niou was actually surprisingly pleasant.

Yagyuu had noticed it early on, and was now becoming certain that Niou was a thinker. He would easily observe and grasp patterns in their training and matches at school, and always had ideas as to what they should do next in their own practice. He also had a good eye for detail, and Yagyuu felt he was benefiting from his observations and feedback.

They were nowhere near good enough yet, but at least Yagyuu was starting to believe that with more disciplined effort, achieving a decent playing capacity would be possible. And like Niou kept saying, going from decent to full power with the revelation of the switch would give them a significant mental edge in a real match.

There was just one thing, or rather, one person holding them back from practising as much as they wanted to: Yagyuu’s mother. No matter how diligently he attended cram school and how flawless his grades remained, there was a limit to how often she accepted her son staying out late after club practice. And no matter how easily Niou supplied him with all sorts of stories about interschool practice matches, supplementary earthquake drills at school and “study circles with the other nerds”, Yagyuu didn’t want to start lying to her just to practise more.

Though she wasn’t unhappy about Yagyuu playing tennis competitively, she kept wondering why so much additional practice would be needed on top of an already extensive club programme, and whether it would be better to prioritize studying, rest and other pastimes. She did ask about Niou, too, saying she would like to meet this teammate who was suddenly taking so much of his time.

It was the first time Yagyuu had to think about how his parents would feel about his friends. Until then, all of them had been mostly similar to himself – interested in studying, fitting in a crowd, ordinary. Niou seemed anything but.

Yagyuu had never thought his parents were especially traditional or strict. But whereas Niou’s parents had been so nice to Yagyuu, he could easily imagine his own being less than excited about what they might see in Niou. After all, he himself hadn’t been all that impressed when he first saw the boy with bad posture and bleached hair among the members of the Rikkai tennis club.

But that was already more than a year ago.

 

\- -

 

Unfortunately, this time Yagyuu’s worries seemed to come true.

He had done his best to describe Niou favourably to his parents beforehand: how, despite his looks, he came from a nice family, was doing reasonably well in school and was even faster than Yagyuu in solving maths problems, as well as serious enough about tennis to make it to the well-respected Rikkai team.

Nothing dramatic happened when he eventually visited – it just felt like no one was quite on the same wavelength with each other. Yagyuu’s mother had made them tempura for dinner, and the four of them, including Yagyuu’s younger sister Shiori, had to sit an uncomfortably long time at the table, eating and talking. Or rather, Niou was made to talk by answering a litany of Yagyuu’s mother’s questions, from his parents’ occupations, the origins of his dialect, his favourite school subjects, interests beyond tennis, all the way to his plans for studies after middle school.

The questions were nice enough, but at least for Yagyuu it was clear Niou was being evaluated. And while Niou was behaving himself well and answering without any attitude, Yagyuu was sitting on fence through it all. Despite the apparent calmness, he could feel it how awkward it was for Niou to be talking so much, especially about himself. But on the other hand, Yagyuu himself was learning a lot, so maybe he didn’t do everything in his power to divert the discussion either.

His sister was the most quiet one. While she wasn’t usually particularly shy, she kept glancing at Niou through the whole dinner, and looked away when he looked at her. Yagyuu thought he saw her blushing at some point – a somewhat worrying sight.

They were finally able to leave the table when Yagyuu told his mother they were going to study a bit before Niou would need to go home for the evening. Like Niou’s, Yagyuu’s room was on the second floor, and they made it there with Niou holding a tray with cups of green tea and pieces of red bean jelly for dessert.

Taking a quick look at the room while Yagyuu closed the door, Niou put the tray down on the bedside table and invited himself to sit down on the bed.

“Ok, so what are the odds that by the end of the day she tells you to quit the team and start doing individual sports instead? Like, I don’t know, golf or something.”

So, Niou had been able to read through the seemingly polite interest. It wasn’t a surprise, but now Yagyuu felt sorry for it, thinking he should try to mitigate somehow.

“Why would you expect that?” he asked, sitting on the chair by his desk and facing Niou.

“Well, I wasn’t exactly getting the vibe that she immediately loved me and just wanted to know basically everything about me because of that.”

“I do apologize for the amount of questions. She was rather too invasive.”

“Never let her meet Yanagi. He’ll get too many new ideas for data points.” Having said that, Niou fell back on the bed, his feet still on the floor.

Yagyuu’s lips quirked at the dramaticness. “Was it really that taxing for you?”

“I’ll survive.”

“I should hope so.”

They were quiet for a moment, before Yagyuu continued.

“But I didn't know you had an interest in studying design.”

“Meh, don't quote me on it. I just had to say something.”

“You are not implying you made everything up just now, I hope.”

“And why would you think that of me?”

“I don’t think that of you.”

Niou made a contemplative sound, but didn’t say anything more.

When Yagyuu reached out his hand to take one of the cups of tea, Niou glanced in his direction and their eyes met for a second. Then, after a moment, Niou pushed himself back up to a sitting position on the bed.

“Ok. My turn to learn more of your secrets,” he said, and got all the way up on his feet.

Looking at him, Yagyuu tilted his head.

“What secrets?”

“Don’t even try, I already know you have some.” He was openly looking all over the room, then coming close to Yagyuu, seemingly to inspect the desk by which he was sitting. “But I guess I’d have to dig a lot to find them here? Your mom is nosy and you don’t even have a lock on your door, poor guy.”

Yagyuu gave Niou the space to look as he pleased. There was nothing on his desk besides stationery and the same text books Niou had. “I think most people don’t need them.”

“That’s so unsuspecting of you.”

Niou moved on to look at his bookshelf, and Yagyuu followed him with his gaze.

“Huh.”

“What?”

“You really do like your mysteries.”

Niou plucked out a book from the shelf, and turned around to show it to him – _The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,_ in the original English – before opening it and starting to browse. Niou had asked about his reading early on once they had become acquaintances, and Yagyuu had mentioned his interest in detective novels.

“You should be careful not to spoil that book for yourself. It has been called the best of its genre, and you might enjoy reading it.”

“Hmm. Were you able to guess who did it?”

“I would say it’s rather difficult to get right in that book.”

“Huh. Maybe I’ll try it out. Not in English though.”

“By all means. I have the Japanese edition as well, and would be happy to lend it to you.”

“Thanks.” Niou put the book back in the shelf. “What I still haven’t figured out is how you have the time to read all this. With the crazy amount of time I know you spend on homework and cram school. And on our project.”

Yagyuu raised his hand to fix his glasses. In truth, he was probably reading significantly less now than a few months ago, before they got started with what they were doing. “It isn’t so difficult, if you just take a bit of time to read every night before going to sleep.”

“Heh, so disciplined. Sanada would be proud.”

“I believe Sanada-kun has his own specific routine. He has told me he goes to sleep at nine every evening.”

“He actually said that? I heard that from someone, but gave him the benefit of the doubt. Like maybe someone was trying to make him sound even more boring than he is.”

“Whether one sees it as boring or not, at least it’s not a very common lifestyle choice.”

“Heh, guess you could say that.”

Niou took one more look at the bookshelf, but didn’t say anything further about it. He made a small circle around the room, but didn’t find much to comment on – Yagyuu didn’t have any posters or the like on his walls, nor any belongings lying around.

“So, what would be the most interesting thing I’d find if I went through all your closets?” Niou asked, sitting down on the bed again and reaching for his tea. “More of your poetry?”

Yagyuu sipped more of his tea as well. “It’s not as if I write it all the time.”

“Sure you don’t. I’ve seen it already, you can be surprisingly romantic.”

“Excuse me? I hardly think so.”

“What else? Uniform costumes or something?”

“Now why would I have something like that?”

“Come on, Yagyuu, I know you gotta have an interest in dressing up to go along with me," Niou said with a grin. “The only thing I don’t have proof of yet is what exactly you wanna dress up as.”

Feeling like he was being made fun of, Yagyuu was becoming slightly annoyed at Niou’s theorizing.

“Please don’t make me sound like some questionable person.”

“Hm. So maybe you’ve been too embarrassed to try it out and don’t know what you like yet. In that case, I’ll take you out someday and make you try something if that makes it easier for you. I know some good places with a lot of options.”

“You are assuming quite a lot about my interests here, Niou-kun.”

“I’ll find out for sure sooner or later.”

“I will allow you to think that, if it amuses you so much.” Saying that, Yagyuu took a look at his watch. “Meanwhile, please try the dessert with the tea. I believe we should have that, and then get started with the studies that we were planning to do today.”

After a long, searching look at Yagyuu, Niou shrugged, and reached for the plate on the bedside table. “Well, might as well.”

 

\- -

 

Even though the visit went without any incident, for the next few days Yagyuu’s mother continued her questioning about Niou.

‘What is his mother thinking, allowing her son to have such indecent hair? Doesn’t the school have rules against dyed hair?’

‘How does this Niou-kun really do in school?’

‘What kind of friends does he have outside school? Is Niou-kun popular with girls? Has he already had girlfriends?'

‘How does Niou-kun get along with the other club members? Surely there are also other boys he could play doubles with.’

At first, the questions were pretty much what Yagyuu had been expecting. His image was so different from most people, and certainly from Yagyuu’s previous friends, that it would have been more surprising if she didn’t say anything about it. Sure, some of those thoughts had gone through his own mind around the time he first became aware of Niou. But weren’t some of them just based on some strange prejudice due to his appearance and not on his actual behaviour or personality?

Eventually, every new question made Yagyuu slightly more annoyed for his friend. At the same time as the mood at home was making him anticipate some trouble from his parents, at school and practice he was coming to realize how he really wanted things to continue as they were.

First of all, their tennis was improving nicely. They still played a lot of singles matches at practice, and some doubles with other players, but for the both of them, their best track record was in playing doubles together. Indeed, the record couldn’t have been better – paired up, they had no losses. Recently they had even beat some upperclassmen who had already graduated to highschool, gaining them approving remarks from Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi.

There were still strong players in the club who they hadn’t faced in a doubles setting, but after each new win, Yagyuu was becoming more confident that they could keep progressing – Niou, even more so.

After one of their wins against the graduates, they were shaking hands at the net. While Yagyuu gave their opponents a customary “thank you for a good game," Niou stood beside him quietly, just smirking at them.

When the upperclassmen made their way off the court murmuring about cocky newcomers, Yagyuu frowned at his partner.

“Niou-kun, shouldn’t you show a bit more respect to our senpai?”

“Why?” Niou lifted his racket to rest against his shoulder. “We’re already a lot better than them.”

It was rude, but Yagyuu couldn’t exactly deny the truth of what he said.

Like that, their record of wins kept growing longer. They still lost games in singles to some, but it was starting to look like at least none of the doubles players in their club could beat them when they teamed up.

And well, winning was nice. Even though Yagyuu sometimes felt bad for the opponents, it was the nature of the sport that there would have to be both winners and losers.

So with things going well for them like that, when Yagyuu got home in the evenings and had to carefully think about what to say about the day to convince his mother that his playing with Niou was nothing to be worried for, it did feel annoying and unfair.

One night in bed, Yagyuu was getting worried enough about the situation to imagine being told not to play with Niou anymore. How would he explain that to Niou, and furthermore to Yukimura and the rest of the team? Would it even be better to leave the club altogether so as to avoid making it awkward for everyone? How would he continue tennis, then? What would Niou’s parents, who had been so nice to him, think?

He never said anything about these thoughts to Niou, nor to his mother. He could just keep doing his best and hope she would soon forget about whatever suspicion she had and let them continue playing.

 

\- - 

 

_‘can we practice tomorrow after club?’_

_‘I am afraid it would be difficult. I am expected to help my sister study for an upcoming test.’_

_‘isn’t she as nerdy as you already?’  
_ _‘does she actually need any help?’_

_‘It is my mother’s request.’_

_‘so now she won’t let you out?’_

_‘I will ask about the day after tomorrow, if you are available then.’_

_‘i guess’  
_ _‘isn’t it your student council day?’_

_‘Our meeting has been rescheduled this time. But it is very considerate of you to remember our regular schedule.’_

_‘just trying to figure out when we can practice._   
_‘you’re too busy. quit cram school?’_   
_‘lol your mom would love that’  
‘anyway we need to play more’_

_‘I don’t disagree with that. Let me get back to you as soon as possible about the day after tomorrow.’_

_‘you could just try doing what you want.’_

 

\- -

 

Eventually, the questions did start to dry up. And since Yagyuu hadn’t been outright told he couldn’t continue playing with Niou, he was going to assume he could.

He started asking for permission to do extra practice more often on weekdays again. While his mother didn’t seem overly excited about it, she did allow him to go, as long as it didn’t affect his studies. That was a condition that he was rather sure he could meet.

At that point, he hadn’t even been thinking about the switch itself for a while – when the whole base about playing with Niou and continuing their tennis practice had been shaky, worrying about things like wigs, posture, internalizing not only Niou’s physical playstyle but his mentality, learning to speak and act like him, and what people would say, and what if either of their parents decided to start showing up to watch their tournaments… Well, those kinds of things had been somewhere far away in the horizon.

Maybe now it was time to start thinking about those things again.


	3. Chapter 3

 

One late evening, when Yagyuu was in the middle of doing his homework, another message came from Niou. Lately, most of the messages he got were either for the Rikkai team chat, or from Niou.

_‘hey, send me some pictures of you. for reference.’_

_‘Pictures? We see each other every day, surely you remember what I look like.’_

_‘i need to check some things to get this right.’_

_‘I’m afraid I don’t have any recent ones available.’_

_‘so?’_  
_‘just take some selfies’  
‘it's not that difficult’_

Slightly annoyed at Niou’s pushiness, Yagyuu looked up from his phone. He had never taken a selfie. Wasn’t that something that was mainly for girls? The ones in his class sometimes took them in school, or giggled over idols’ pictures together on lunch. The thought of taking such photos himself felt like totally a foreign idea.

But try as he did, he couldn't come up with a reasonable argument for declining. As Niou said, it shouldn't be that difficult.

Sitting by his desk, he tried taking a few pictures, mimicking the way he’d seen others doing it. The pictures came out a bit blurry, awkward and not looking like what he thought he looked like in the mirror. So he tried again. And when those weren't that good either, again.

He considered taking off his glasses – in some pictures, they caught the light in a weird way – but then again, he always wore them and it would have been strange to send pictures without them. He fixed his hair a bit. He tried looking at the camera, and then not at the camera.

Half an hour later, Yagyuu was convinced that was the most time he had ever spent on looking at himself and thinking about what he looked like. He had probably never felt as self-conscious. Knowing Niou would be looking at the pictures closely, checking whatever he needed to check, didn’t exactly help.

Yagyuu wondered just what he would be looking at. After all, he didn’t look all that special, especially compared to Niou himself.

Still, despite the awkwardness, it would have been a waste to go through all that trouble without any result. At last, he sent a couple of pictures to Niou.

_‘Here, as you requested. Please delete them after you are done with your task.’_

Setting his phone down, he got back to his homework. After fifteen minutes, Niou replied.

 _‘nice’_  
_is this all?’  
‘you have more, right? send me the others too’_

Reading the messages, Yagyuu sighed in half vexation, half relieved amusement. Niou always pushing for more like this. But in this case, it seemed preferable to being made fun of for his poor pictures.

He ended up sending a few more.

_‘This should be enough.’_

‘ _for now i guess.’_  
_‘thanks yagyuu’  
‘were you for real still wearing a shirt or did you put it on for show?’_

_‘What would you mean by that? Yes, I am wearing this.’_

_‘you’re too proper for real sometimes.’  
_ _‘anyway, don't go to sleep yet.’_

Having finished up his homework, Yagyuu had evening tea with his father who came home late from his work in the hospital. A couple of times he found himself thinking about what Niou might have been doing at the moment.

When he retired to his room for the night, the first thing he did was to take a look at his phone to see if there was anything there.

There was. Niou had sent him three pictures.

He hadn’t written anything. It was just photos of him, in the brown wig and glasses. Feeling some kind of a stir, Yagyuu quickly made sure his door was closed and went to bed, shutting the light before allowing himself to look at the pictures properly in the darkness.

Niou truly didn’t look like himself in the pictures – that was the same impression as when he first saw the disguise in person. But unlike last time, now at least briefly Yagyuu had gotten the feeling as if he was looking at himself.

It was a strange, unexpected experience.

Going back to look at the photos of himself that he had sent earlier, and then back at Niou’s, he realised Niou had mimicked him so that his face was shown from a similar angle, and with a similar expression. Maybe that explained the effect.

A message came.

_‘what do you think?’_

Honestly, he was impressed again. Niou was truly good at this.

_‘I’m not quite sure what you changed since the last time, but I think it looks more accurate.’_

_‘better, yeah, but does it look right to you?’_

_‘I suppose it somewhat does.’_

_‘is that a yes or no?’_  
_‘or whatever, lets do it face to face again so i can get your real reaction’_  
_‘but i think this is pretty close’_  
_‘better than when i did sanada lol’_  
_‘you and me look a lot more similar so its easier’_

_‘In that comparison, I would have to agree. Yet this time it is not enough for you to change yourself.’_

_‘if i can become you, you can become me.’_  
_‘let's do both of us next time.’_

 

\- -

 

The next time didn’t come very soon. Lately, Yukimura was driving the team hard to become better. The reasons seemed to vary – at times, he said everyone was doing badly so they needed to do extra practice. Sometimes, someone managed to pull off a technique that impressed him, and he ordered the whole team to stay on the courts after other club members went home and practice the same thing for so long until everyone could show they got at least the basic gist of it. Once, they were told to stay to practice a high-speed shot that Yagyuu had been becoming pretty good at lately. That did feel pretty nice, as they had just trained for it in their private practice. Niou shot him a wink in the middle of the drills when no one was looking, and Yagyuu nodded at him.

These prolonged practice sessions at the club did take away more than a few chances for their private practice though, and afterwards Yagyuu had to run to make it to the cram school.

Sometimes Niou texted him when the lesson was still on-going.

_‘learning anything you don’t know already?’_

_‘you know there’s nothing you can do to get more than 100 points in tests, right?’_

_‘don’t hit that shot at club tomorrow. we need to do our own thing, not waste time waiting for kirihara getting his spin right.’_

Yagyuu never answered before the lesson was over. But it wasn’t until Niou sent him new selfies as Yagyuu during a class that he quickly put the phone back in his bag and resolved never to keep it on the desk again. He couldn’t risk anyone seeing that.

In the train back home, he opened the messages after making sure no one was looking.

He looked very proper in the picture. But what caught Yagyuu’s attention the most this time was a message that had come with it.

_‘don’t i look good like this?’_

Good. Not just accurate or right – which Yagyuu was ready to admit – but good.

He had always assumed being subdued and fitting in the crowd was generally against Niou's taste.

Maybe he was actually praising his own transformation skills more than anything else. But even so, the point this time was to look like Yagyuu.

Who was he actually complimenting, and for what?

Aiming to avoid Niou’s question, he commented on the accuracy instead.

_‘I do admit you look quite much like me in this picture.’_

Niou didn’t write back. Instead, he sent another picture – this time, still wearing the disguise but winking and smiling. Yagyuu almost dropped his phone when he saw it.

_‘Please don’t take pictures like that.’_

_‘why not? you could be fun like this ;)’_

_‘I am not like that. Make sure to delete it properly.’_

_‘yeah yeah.’_   
_'don’t get all angry, it’s just a joke.’_   
_‘it’s not like anyone else is going to see it’_

That at least was reassuring to hear, even if Yagyuu didn’t think he could take everything Niou said at face value. Before he was able to type an answer, Niou sent another message.

 _‘anyway. you should come over this weekend.’  
_ _‘my parents are out so we can do you.’_

_‘I see. Let me check once I get home and confirm with you soon.’_

_‘tell your mom we’ll be studying art history.’_

 

\- -

 

That weekend, Yagyuu spent the Saturday going on shopping with his mother and sister. Father joined them at some point for early dinner at a sushi restaurant, and afterwards they went to the movies together.

It was a fun day, but from time to time, Yagyuu found himself thinking about the next one.

He had told his family he and Niou would be practicing tennis, and then studying for a literature test next week.

The tennis part was true. Studying yes, if they had the time. Trying on wigs, contacts and the like… The project was becoming the first time Yagyuu was keeping something a secret from his family.

Part of him was worried about being found out. Another part was feeling some previously unknown excitement about it.

On Sunday before noon, Yagyuu was at the agreed upon street court before Niou. It was still warm out in the sun, though the approaching autumn could already be felt in the cooling mornings and late evenings. Leaving his bags on a nearby bench and taking his racket, Yagyuu picked a wall to do some hitting against while he waited for Niou to show up.

He started with light hitting with his dominant hand, and then, after checking again no one he knew was around, changed to his left.

Just switching hands wasn’t enough to make the full change in the form he needed to achieve. Gradually, he started curving his back, leaning forward the way Niou tended to do. Part of it was probably bad posture – something Yagyuu kept thinking Niou would be better off fixing – but he wondered if part of it was meant to put pressure on the opponents as Niou scrutinized them for any weaknesses. That was another thing Yagyuu would need to learn to do.

Soon, he was so immersed in what he was doing he didn’t notice anyone approaching him.

“It really looks weird when you’re hunched like that.”

Yagyuu’s back shot up straight the second he heard the words. Even when the voice was so clearly Niou’s.

Turning to look, he saw Niou, wearing a black tracksuit, snickering at him while bouncing a ball on his racket.

“Good morning, Niou-kun. You surprised me.”

“Yeah, well. Good thing it was me.”

Niou started rolling his shoulders to warm them up as he came closer.

“So, you wanted to work on the speed shot more?”

“If you do not mind, yes. Actually, I have done some research on the topic and would like to try a few things and get your opinion.”

Yagyuu could see the interest rising up in Niou’s eyes.

“Cool. Let’s do it.”

 

\- -

 

They got a good two hours of practice in before they decided to pack up and head over to Niou’s for the rest of what they needed to do.

According to Niou, no one would be at home today for at least the next three hours, so they would have sufficient time for trying things out. While Yagyuu would have been happy to meet his parents again, as well as getting to know his siblings more – he still hadn’t met his sister – he thought that was for the best. Even though trying the costume on at home was better than at any public space, and even if Niou seemed to find nothing strange about locking themselves in to his room, Yagyuu would not have felt comfortable doing such a thing with family members close by.

As expected, the house was quiet when they made it there.

“So," Niou said when taking off his shoes, “I guess you’ll wanna shower?”

“Preferably, yes. I have my own towel with me.”

“I guess I will too, then. It’s upstairs, you can go first.”

“Thank you.” Stepping up from the lowered entrance, Yagyuu started opening his tennis bag. “Oh, I brought a little something with me this time, as well. Should I leave it in the kitchen?”

“What, again? I already told you you don’t need to.”

Niou really seemed to be not very accustomed to receiving basic courtesies.

“And I still disagree. As I have already brought it, can I leave it here?”

“Uh, don’t. Mom will yell at me if they knew you were here and I didn’t tell them. I’ll eat it myself.”

Niou started up the stairs, and Yagyuu followed him.

“She will? Are you sure I should be visiting, then?”

“Yeah. Like, they don’t mind you coming, they mind missing out, heh.”

“Oh.”

“I know, they’re so embarrassing.”

Upstairs, Niou showed him the bathroom. “Anyway, here. I’ll get stuff ready while you go.”

“I see. Thank you.”

“Yeah.”

After closing the door behind him, Yagyuu set his bag down and looked around. So, this was Niou’s bathroom. He could immediately tell a girl used it as well – there were more bottles, pouches and hairpins around than he could guess the uses for, and he thought it was rather safe to guess they were not Niou’s and his brother’s.

Feeling somewhat privileged for having the possibility to observe such things when the rest of the team didn’t even know where Niou lived, Yagyuu left further looking around aside and proceeded with taking a shower. Afterwards, he got dressed in dark blue trousers and a green v-neck knit. He already knew it was probably not an outfit that would match his upcoming look, but he didn’t really have anything better to bring. As the last piece of preparation, he put on contacts lenses and packed away his glasses.

When he was done, he gathered his things and knocked on the slightly open door to Niou’s room.

“Excuse me for the wait," he said, stepping in.

“Yeah.” Niou, sitting on his futon, looked up from his phone, and a slight change occurred on his face when he saw Yagyuu. “Huh. Contacts?”

“Yes. I thought I would need to be able to see properly this time.”

“Yeah. Nice.”

Niou was still looking at him as Yagyuu had set down his bag, and when he noticed, it made him feel self-conscious again.

“Is there anything wrong?”

“No," Niou said, and then started getting up. “I’m gonna go shower too.” He gestured to his desk, where Yagyuu noticed a grayish wig and a mirror. “You can start putting that on. The net is for getting your own hair out of the way.”

“I see. I will try it out.”

“Yeah. I’d tell you not to look in my closets, but you wouldn’t anyway, right?”

“I would not.”

“Good. I’ll know if you did.”

With that, Niou left the room.

Yagyuu glanced at the closets. He hadn’t been thinking about looking, but now that Niou especially mentioned it, he did become curious – both about the contents, and about how exactly Niou would know if he did peek in. Maybe there was a trap of some kind built in, or something he could not see without making a comment afterwards, like...

No. He was not there to solve any mystery, but to dress up as Niou.

He sat by the desk, and started to examine the wig. It did seem more real this time. Maybe this time would be better, like Niou had been saying.

Yagyuu hoped it would be.

Following the advice from a video tutorial he had looked up online a while back, he started by trying to capture all of his hair inside the net. Then, it was the wig’s turn. Holding it upside down and tilting his head forward, Yagyuu pulled the wig over his head.

It still looked like a mess first when he looked in the mirror. Leaning closer, he started combing his fingers through it to make it settle around his face the way Niou’s hair did. As he did that, he realized he wasn’t sure how exactly it was supposed to be. Maybe he should have asked for Niou’s pictures previously, too.

When he couldn’t do more, he was left with just studying himself in the mirror.

Well, it was a big change. And yes, it was clearly better than the first time, but it wasn’t quite there yet. It was the same as seeing Niou as himself at first – Yagyuu, too, looked very different from his usual self, but not fully like Niou, either.

After Niou had asked him about it, Yagyuu did now acknowledge in his mind that Niou as Yagyuu looked, for the lack of a better word, good. But when it came to himself, he wasn’t nearly as confident that he would be able to carry Niou’s peculiar style. And wasn’t it even more important for him to get it right? After all, there wasn’t much reason for people to be looking at Yagyuu, but many to be looking at Niou.

Feeling a bit disillusioned again, he reminded himself that the whole thing might not work out after all.

In a while, there was a knock at the door.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes. Niou-kun, I think we need to…”

It wasn’t Niou who came in. It was himself. Clad in dark jeans, white shirt and a purple cardigan, this other Yagyuu could keep a neutral expression only for a few seconds before breaking out into a grin full of mischief.

“Ok, wow. I knew this was gonna be good!”

Yagyuu eyed him under the white-ish hair, still not very used at seeing Niou as himself.

“So you keep saying, but I think there are still issues on the way before we can say that.”

“Nothing that can’t be fixed.”

Niou stopped in front of Yagyuu and leaned close to peer at him, smiling in a way that was more him than Yagyuu. Yagyuu felt like averting his eyes, but remembering how Niou had allowed himself to be looked at when he had switched for the first time, Yagyuu kept his eyes on Niou’s while he looked at him closely.

Finally, Niou straightened up. “Okay, I see what needs to be done. Let’s fix the wig first.”

“Sure. Should I take it off?”

“Nah, keep it on. I’ll cut it while it’s on so I’ll get it right.”

“If that is more convenient for you. What about a cover?”

“You could just take your shirt off? It’s easier to wipe the hair off from skin than clothes.”

“... I’ll use my towel.”

“While it’s still wet? Well, suit yourself.”

They got ready for the task, Yagyuu wrapping the (uncomfortably damp) towel around his shoulders and Niou producing a pair of scissors from the drawer on his desk. Yagyuu sat motionless as Niou got started with the neck hair, and after a while, he proceeded with the conversation.

“You seem to be pretty confident in this.”

“The switch?”

“Well, that as well. But I meant haircutting.”

“Yeah, well. I’ve had a lot of practice with all the previous ones.”

“I see.”

As he worked on the wig, Niou’s fingers occasionally went over Yagyuu’s neck as he gathered the hair for cutting, ruffled it to see how it was, and repeated. Yagyuu tried to resist shuddering against the tickling feeling, but didn’t quite succeed. He heard Niou chuckling behind him.

“Aren’t you sensitive.”

“I hope you are not tickling me on purpose.”

“Bear with it, I’m almost done with the neck.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Niou soon moved on to snip around elsewhere, eventually asking Yagyuu to turn around to face him. As Niou tweaked the hair around his face, leaning close in concentration, Yagyuu looked down at his own hands.

“If I may ask, when did you first start dying your hair?”

Niou stopped for a moment, but continued soon.

“Sometime before middle school, I guess.”

“And your school back then allowed it?”

“I did successfully graduate from there. What, are you still getting some second-hand shit about it at the public morals committee?”

“Not recently.”

“Then why are you asking?”

“I was just interested.”

“Oh.” Then, after a pause. “It’s not that interesting.”

“I think many people would disagree.”

“Many people are boring.”

“With that criterion, I take it I am included.”

“You’re sitting here with a white wig on your head, so you can’t be too boring. Now shut up, I need to concentrate for the rest.”

“Yes, excuse me.”

As he thought about it in quiet, he supposed there was some truth to what Niou had just said. At least compared to his own life so far, this must have surely been the most unconventional thing he had been part of.

It was still strange to him, but unexpectedly fun.

“Okay, I think that’s it. Just needs some styling.”

Niou prompted him to turn back, and started poking around with a comb, wax and hairspray. The smell made Yagyuu cough, forcing Niou to pause for a while.

“Really, so sensitive.”

“Well, I’m not used to it like you are.”

“It should be fine if we do it once, then it’s just small fixes later. Since you don’t need to wash this.”

“I hope so.”

“But at some point we need to test how it works with tennis.”

“Of course. That is what it’s for.”

“Yeah.”

After a bit more work on the styling, Niou stepped back to look at his creation.

“Looking pretty good. Now, you can put this on.”

Niou took something from his pocket, and held out his hand. When Yagyuu extended his to receive it, he found it was his usual pink hair tie. Niou tilted his head back to prompt him to get on with it, and nodding, Yagyuu gathered the hair on his neck and twisted the band around it.

When he looked at the mirror once again, Niou, in his Yagyuu look, grinned at him over his shoulder.

“A lot better than the last time, right?”

Niou was correct. The hair was the right kind of a mess now. And just like the dark wig made Niou’s skin look brighter, the light one made Yagyuu’s darker in comparison. They were starting to look more like each other’s opposites, as they normally were.

Yagyuu nodded at him in the mirror.

“It is getting closer.”

“Then let’s do the rest. Take off your shirt.”

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t wear green.”

“Is it necessary for this test to fix that?”

“It is. Don’t complain and take it off.”

Seeing it was pointless to resist, Yagyuu peeled off the towel while Niou went to his closet. Then, careful not to remove the wig, he pulled the knit over his head. The dampness from the towel had went through the fabric and reached his skin, making the touch of air feel cool on his bare skin.

When he had set his own shirt aside, Niou handed him a light gray Adidas hoodie.

“Here.”

“Thank you.”

Niou watched him pull it on, looking focused with his glasses on. Maybe the styling had suffered a bit in the process of changing clothes, because he reached out his hand to tweak Yagyuu’s wig again. As he did that, their eyes met.

Then, Niou stepped past him and went for the door.

“Just one more thing. Sit down and wait.”

“Alright.”

Niou was back soon, with one of the pouches from the bathroom. Setting it on the desk, he started rummaging through it.

“Just how many different types does she need… Ah, here.”

It was a pen.

“For the mole?”

“Yeah. Raise your face.”

Yagyuu did as he was told, but apparently it wasn’t right, so Niou brought his hand to his chin and tilted it the way he wanted it. Yagyuu looked to the side, and Niou pressed the pen on his skin.

It felt weird. The pen, the way Niou… Well, the whole thing. But it was over quickly. Niou leaned back again, and Yagyuu let go of the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. If Niou noticed, he didn’t say anything about it, just grinned at the finished look.

“Yeah. This is so going to work. Look.”

Yagyuu did. And sure enough – for such a small detail, it actually made a real difference.

It was confusing, but he had started to look somewhat like Niou, even to himself.

As Yagyuu kept studying himself in the mirror, Niou sat down on the desk and looked down at him.

“It’ll be even better when you get the facial expressions right.”

“I suppose so.”

“I guess you’re an okay actor? At least you have a good poker face already.”

Yagyuu glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. “What would you mean by that?”

“What do you mean what? You say all kinds of white or worse lies everyday with a totally straight face.”

“What are you saying? I do not," Yagyuu argued, feeling he was being called out.

“Ok, keep telling yourself that. Anyway, we’ll basically have the looks down soon. Then I guess it’ll be voices. Yours is lower than mine, but I can do Sanada so I can do you too.”

“How should I go about practicing yours?”

“It’s not difficult. Just think of some stuff I’ve said and try saying it. And maybe record it on your phone so you can listen to it, ‘cause it’ll sound different that way.”

“I see. That’s true, I’ll make sure to try that.”

“Yeah. Then it’s like, posture, gestures and that kind of thing. But you already got some of that down.”

“I do think a lot more practice is needed, though.”

“Yeah, but we got all winter and spring before the tournament. Piece of cake.”

“It may be for you, but you should remember I have never done anything like this before.”

“Well, that’s what the time is for," Niou said, shrugging. “But you’ll get it. Like you always get everything else.”

“I believe I’m still lacking," Yagyuu said, both out of custom and of truly thinking so. Still, he had noticed Niou didn’t usually compliment or encourage people easily, so he nodded, looking him in the eye. “But thank you, Niou-kun.”

Niou looked back at him for a while, and then laughed, averting his eyes.

“What is it?”

“Well, it looks totally weird when you say that looking like me. At least don’t say my name, ok?”

Yagyuu laughed as well. “I see your point. I shall try to remember that.”

“And then you can drop the formal speech.”

“You, on the other hand, will need to become able to use it comfortably. I hope you are paying proper attention in Japanese class.”

“Ugh, yeah, yeah. That's probably the most annoying part of this whole thing. Thanks for being such a stick-up-the-ass.”

“I'm glad you now have a good reason to practice it, then.”

“I'm sure you are.”

Having said that, Niou pushed himself off the desk and on to his feet. “Anyway, let's take some selfies together while we're all made up.”

Selfies, together? When it was awkward enough on one’s own?

“For what purpose?”

“For fun?” Niou suggested. “And for making this better. Some differences are easier to pick out from a picture.”

“Hm, I suppose that would be true…”

“Not that we have any to compare to… Let’s take some normal ones later.”

“Let us see about that. I believe we agree these pictures would be just for our own use?”

“Yeah. Come on, get up and let’s do this already.”

Yagyuu sighed at the determination Niou was showing. As it often was with him, it seemed easier to go along with him rather than argue further. “Well, if you insist.”

A grin appeared on Niou’s face, but not for long. As Yagyuu got up from his chair, Niou’s expression changed to a small, neutral smile. Then, imitating Yagyuu’s voice, he said: “I do insist, Niou-kun," and handed his phone to Yagyuu.

So, this was where they were going to start acting out their roles? It was sooner than Yagyuu had expected – he had thought he could first practice a bit by himself first, now that he had the things he needed to make himself look like Niou.

But then again, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t thought about how to do it already. After a moment’s hesitation, he made up his mind.

Cocking his chin upward, he grabbed Niou’s arm and pulled him next to him, trying to mimic Niou’s voice. “Come here then.”

While Niou cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses, Yagyuu extended his arm, trying to get both of them to fit in the screen. Seeing themselves on it, him with his crazy hair and Niou all tidy and proper, he did his best to ignore how weird it was to him. He was supposed to be Niou now, and surely for him this was nothing that strange.

What would Niou think, or say, then? If it was the same thing he had been saying until now, then maybe…

“Heh, we look so good like this.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just look at that blushing Yagyuu-as-Niou and sneaky Niou-as-Yagyuu. <3 I'm beyond grateful for this art, they are so cute and I love it so much!!
> 
> Please go give all the likes and reblogs this amazing art deserves here in the artist's [Twitter post](https://twitter.com/kylie_pkisded/status/1034994837215313922).


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A part of this chapter refers to a discussion between Niou and Yagyuu in a PairPuri drama that is less known about. Even though the timeline in this fic is a bit different - and honestly, who can make out how it really went for these boys - I'm linking it here for reference: http://setralynn.tumblr.com/post/20775100560/pairpuri-drama-bits-with-partial-translation

After that day at Niou’s, Yagyuu started paying even closer attention to his behaviour than before. That they could actually look like each other to a confusing degree was now quite sure – the pictures they had taken and Niou had later sent him kept reminding Yagyuu of that. The next challenge was how to use that exterior so that no one could tell the interior was different.

Of course, it would have been possible to just tell the team what they were up to – that way they wouldn’t have needed to worry so much about getting every little detail right. Some of the opponents they would face in the nationals would remember Yagyuu from the previous year, and perhaps some of them had noted Niou in the audience as well, but it was unlikely they had paid so close attention that they would be able to tell the difference. But even if it was unlikely, it was possible – and going through all this trouble and then having it be ruined by not taking it far enough didn’t make much sense.

There was also the question of how some members of the team would take it if they knew, and if they could then act naturally enough to no give it away.

Basically not doing the switch properly would have them relying on luck and other people, and they both agreed that would not be ideal.

That being the case, in order for them to pass as each other to the extent that even their teammates wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, it was necessary to observe, understand, predict and finally to become able to act out each other's behaviour.

So Yagyuu begun watching more closely. Not only in the context of tennis, but on breaks and lunchtimes, on their way to their own practice, any time they happened to be together.

Since Yagyuu himself liked studying, one thing he was interested to understand was Niou’s relationship with school. To him, it seemed like while Niou wasn’t as enthusiastic about studying as himself, he was doing quite decently in most subjects. As far as Yagyuu could tell, Niou even did most of his homework, only skipping things he was confident he already knew. He wasn’t absent from as many lessons as one might have assumed either, and if he was, at least he asked to take a look at Yagyuu’s notes. Niou could also clear tests with relatively good results after hearing or reading about the contents just once. One couldn’t exactly call him a good student, but there was no denying he was smart and had a good memory.

Niou’s ability at observation and his quick wit was apparent in his interactions with their friends from the tennis club as well. When they sometimes ate lunch together with their teammates, he noted Niou was adaptable. Whereas people like Marui were often rather thoughtless in the way they could go on and on about themselves and topics no one else had much to say to, Niou could read the mood and attach his contributions to what other people were bringing to the conversation. Not to say he always, or even most of the time, used that ability empathetically – Yagyuu really thought he could have been more polite to their friends at times – but at least he could appreciate the fact Niou seemed to be quite mindful of his surroundings in his own way.

And well, if Yagyuu was being completely honest with himself, he did sometimes find himself agreeing with some of the less than flattering things Niou said about the people around them, including some teammates, when no one else was around. Sometimes, Yagyuu had already thought of the same thing, but would never have voiced his thinking to anyone. Niou, apparently, didn’t mind saying such opinions, at least to him.

‘Marui should learn how to shut up sometimes. It’s not like his volleys get any better by talking about it.’

‘This Kirihara kid doesn’t seem like he’s too smart. How many times has Yukimura explained how to do that slice already?’

‘Sanada could try yelling less and actually giving some real suggestions if he’s so pissed at us.’

Sometimes Niou’s comments put Yagyuu in a difficult position – he didn’t like saying he disagreed if he actually didn’t, but talking badly of others behind their back was also quite unbecoming. So most of the time, he settled to just tell Niou that his comments were not a nice thing to say.

Usually Niou let it be. But once, after one jab or another and Yagyuu’s less-than-wholehearted disapproval, Niou stopped to look him in the eye.

At that moment, Yagyuu knew he had made a mistake.

Niou grinned, and as he had lately started sometimes doing in school and practice, threw his arm over Yagyuu’s shoulder, whispering in his ear:

“You’re not really so nice either, are you?”

 

\- -

 

One day, when Yagyuu told Niou he was having a difficult time finding chances to practice imitating his voice, as he was rarely if ever alone at home, Niou told him to tag along after school.

He wasn’t sure what he had expected, but at least not the cheap karaoke place near the station. Niou did have a simple but good point, though: it was soundproof and private. Accepting the idea, Yagyuu insisted on paying for the both of them – a little compensation for the money Niou had spent on the wigs.

So there they were, sitting in the small booth with the sodas that came with the deal, repeating each others’ sentences and trying to get their voices right. And when it felt silly to do just that for an hour, they figured they might as well sing a bit while they were there. The selection wasn’t particularly good, but at least Yagyuu found Zard’s _Makenaide_ from the classics list. Niou started thinking how he could convince Yukimura to let him bring a portable karaoke set to their tournament bus next time so Yagyuu could sing it for the whole team. Yagyuu himself didn’t think of it as a very appealing idea.

Had Niou not mentioned it, Yagyuu might have forgotten to think about tennis tournaments for a moment.

 

\- -

 

Later that evening, when Yagyuu mentioned visiting a karaoke place with Niou at dinner table, his mother surprised him by suggesting to invite him over again – not just for dinner, but to stay overnight.

It seemed rather odd to Yagyuu at first, considering how suspicious she had seemed about Niou earlier, but the reason came through soon enough when she said it should be nicer for them to stay at home rather than wander around in the town.

Yagyuu was not entirely sure how Niou would feel about the idea, but he messaged him about it later.

 _‘so basically she wants to keep watch?’  
_ _‘worried i’m giving you bad influences?’_

Honestly, he had the same impression.

_‘Surely she does not mean that.’_

_‘surely, huh’_   
_‘we should test this makeup thing ive been looking into, so i guess i could come to your place for that’_   
_‘but can we even do anything if she’s so worried about you doing anything fun?’  
‘you really need that lock on your door’_

_‘I hardly think I have a need for it. But I wonder what exactly you mean by makeup?’_

_‘do you know what contouring is?’_  
_‘my sister’s doing it lately’_  
_‘i think we can use it to make us look even more right’_

\- -

 

“Okay, this looks like shit.”

Niou was making face at their reflections in the mirror. Yagyuu was making a face at Niou’s language, though he rather agreed with the sentiment.

“It doesn’t look very natural, does it.”

“How the fuck do girls wear makeup so that it doesn’t look like makeup?”

After a dinner that had thankfully been less awkward than last time, Niou and Yagyuu had retreated to Yagyuu’s room to “watch tennis videos”. The videos were running on a laptop for show in case anyone would knock and come in, but instead of actually watching the Navratilova-Shriver pair’s doubles matches from 1982, they were huddled in front of a fold-up mirror set on Yagyuu’s desk. With his own permission, Niou had borrowed a sizeable number of all kinds of cosmetic items and substances from his sister’s collection, and figuring them out was turning out to be a challenge of its own.

Besides the foundations and contouring Niou had suggested they tried, he had wanted to try shaping their eyes with eyeliner and changing their eyebrows to reach something of a middle ground between their features. The change was supposed to be small enough to be unnoticable when they were themselves, but enough to hide their differences when they switched.

Now the both of them just looked somehow girly. It was not good.

“Maybe we applied too much?” Yagyuu suggested.

“Yeah, maybe.” Niou pulled out a wet wipe and begun cleaning his face. “Geh, no wonder sis always takes hours in the bathroom.”

Yagyuu followed Niou’s example, starting to carefully wipe around his eyes. He was wearing contacts for this task again and didn’t want to accidentally displace them. “I am glad my sister is still too young for this.”

“Lucky you. I was late this morning because of her. I was even up on time but she took forever to fix her face. And she wasn’t even that pretty afterwards, so what’s the point.”

“What an unpleasant thing to say about your own sister.”

“It’s true though. Yours is a lot cuter.”

Yagyuu glanced at Niou. Shiori had been a bit more talkative today, and asked Niou about things like his favourite color.

“I am glad you are being nice to her, but please do not take it too far. I am afraid she might be developing something of a crush on you.”

“Uh, yeah, I didn’t mean cute like that. She’s like what, eight?”

“She is nine years old.”

“Anyway," Niou said, tossing the used wipe on the rubbish bin, “don’t worry. I’m not going to seduce your sister.”

That wasn’t exactly what Yagyuu had been saying, but he nodded anyway. “I will trust you on that.”

Niou picked up another container of foundation and started over. “Your mom would probably kill me, hah.”

“I think she is beginning to like you more as well, though.”

“Yeah, at least she doesn’t seem to hate me as much as before.”

“Please don’t exaggerate. She didn’t hate you before.”

“Sure she didn’t. But it’s fine. You hated me too at first.”

Finishing his makeup removal, Yagyuu frowned at Niou via the mirror.

“Why ever would you say that? I never had such sentiment for you.”

The look Niou gave him wasn’t very convinced, but he continued with his task. “Yeah you did. Don’t you remember how you dissed me straight to my face?”

Yagyuu wanted to argue, but had to admit to himself that part of what Niou said wasn’t entirely untrue. There had been a time when Yagyuu had been quite direct in some of his hasty criticism. Already a member of Rikkai middle school’s public morals committee at the time, he had been committed to doing his part for supporting order and harmony within the student body. Niou had looked like trouble from the start, and when Yagyuu had learned about his pranks and deceptions, he had allowed himself to think rather badly of him. When Niou had then reached out to him, Yagyuu hadn’t hesitated to speak his mind.

It hadn’t taken him long to find out the initial impression had been somewhat mistaken, though.

“I admit I had some, well, misconceptions at the beginning of our acquaintance, but I’m quite sure I apologized to you back then. If I need to do so again, I...”

“No," Niou interrupted him. “You don’t. I’m not pissed or anything, so chill.”

“Oh.”

“You’re so dramatic sometimes.”

He had thought maybe Niou was still offended since he brought it up. Not totally sure, he searched Niou’s expression for confirmation, but he already seemed to be back to concentrating on applying the foundation around his eyes. When he realized Yagyuu was looking at him, he tilted his chin upward, gesturing Yagyuu to move on.

“What? Come on, we have stuff to do here.”

Well, if Niou said he was fine… Yagyuu picked up the makeup sponge and got back to work.

They repeated the same thing a few times: putting on foundation, adding the contouring, drawing lines around their eyes. Niou asked Yagyuu to turn to him a couple of times so he could make sure how exactly did his eyes or eyebrows or nose look like, before continuing with his task.

Niou had pulled back the hair on his forehead with pins to get it out of the way, and for Yagyuu, somehow that made him look more harmless than usual. Smiling a bit at the discovery, he reflected how the opposite seemed to be true for his own image as he applied the changes needed for making him more Niou-like.

He was just drawing the mole on his chin when Niou swore.

“Fuck, this eyeliner stuff still looks like shit.”

“Let me see.”

Niou turned his face towards Yagyuu. “I think there’s still too much.”

Yagyuu agreed – it still came off as makeup. “I believe you are right. The line needs to be less noticeable still.”

“How do you get yours so fine?”

“Well, I did pay attention when Sanada-kun invited the team of that time to try calligraphy last spring. Among other things, we practised a very light stroke.”

“For real? Sounds like a bore, but guess it turned out unexpectedly useful.”

Yagyuu nodded. Niou, not part of the team yet at that time, might have been a weird sight there, given the serious mood of the Sanada family dojo. They had even met the vice-captain’s father and grandfather at that time, as they had supervised the visit and advised them in their use of the brush and ink.

“You would have benefited from it now, yes.”

“Meh. I’ll just benefit from you instead. Do mine too since you’re such a pro.”

“I can try, but I don’t think it’s so easy applying it for someone else.”

“Maybe. But let’s test it anyway.”

After Niou had cleaned up the existing eyeliner, he turned his chair to face Yagyuu and closed his eyes.

Really, he did look unusually harmless like that.

The angle of Niou’s face was difficult, so Yagyuu had to carefully adjust it by touching his chin and guiding him to a better position. Then, he got started.

Niou stayed commendably still as the tip of the brush touched his eyelashes. As Yagyuu had expected, it was not very easy doing it for someone else, but with concentration, he was able to keep the line left by the brush quite thin and even.

After the first one, he leaned back a bit to check the result, and found Niou smiling.

“What is it?”

Realizing Yagyuu was taking a break, Niou laughed and blinked his eyes open.

“You know, that you’re seriously doing my face with Sanada’s advice.”

Yagyuu laughed at the description. “Well, when you put it like that, it does seem quite unexpected.”

“He’d choke if he knew.”

“Quite likely," Yagyuu agreed. “Speaking of Sanada-kun, I don’t mean offense, but I assumed you had used these things” – he gestured to the makeup assortment on the table – “before, when you disguised yourself as him and others.”

“Nah, I usually just do my brows or something. You don’t need to do all this if it’s a quick thing for fun. This is different since there’s two of us and they’ll have time to compare.”

“I see. Well, I suppose that is true.”

“Yeah. Anyway, do the other side.”

Yagyuu did as he was told. Niou seemed happier with the result, but wasn’t satisfied with just that. He wanted them to test the wigs on so they could see the full effect. In all honesty, Yagyuu didn’t feel very comfortable doing it at home when there was a risk of someone checking in on them – the makeup test itself was already risky – but since they had gone through this trouble already (and because he was curious as well), they agreed to try it very quickly.

Niou dug up his wig from the bag he had thrown on Yagyuu’s bed, and Yagyuu produced his from behind his bookshelf. As he was pulling the wig over his head, Yagyuu vaguely registered that the match playing from Youtube had changed to the next one. They would have to take a look at the videos properly some other time.

The addition of the wigs still made for an impressive change to see. Niou grinned at him, and Yagyuu felt like doing the same. Niou’s change was not complete though, and he went back to his bag.

“Crap, I left my glasses at home. Let me borrow yours.”

“Sure, but you will not see properly through them.” Niou’s were without prescription, but the same was not true for Yagyuu’s.

“Doesn’t matter. Take a photo of me and I’ll look at it afterwards.”

After some finalizing touches to their appearances, they got to taking a few quick photos. First of Niou, then of Yagyuu.

This time, Yagyuu had decided he would do better in his pictures. The ones they had taken at Niou’s home last time had been intriguing to look at – indeed, he had spent a good while studying them afterwards – but the more he had looked, the more he had seen a certain inadequacy in himself as Niou. He had lacked attitude. Without that, he wouldn’t look like Niou, and people would be able to tell the difference. So, on the evenings when they couldn’t play tennis, that’s what he had started practising in front of a mirror: looking confident and daring, like he was planning some mischief. That’s what he thought Niou often looked like.

Somehow getting into that mentality turned out a lot easier now that he was actually made up as Niou. And with Niou looking just like Yagyuu right in front of him.

When Niou lowered the phone after he had enough photos, this time Yagyuu took it from him by himself, changing his voice.

“We’re not done yet.”

Niou played along without pause, speaking in Yagyuu’s voice. “We do need to hurry up, though.”

“Don’t stall, then.”

Like the last time, Yagyuu maneuvered them next to to each other. But when Yagyuu put his arm on Niou’s shoulder, like Niou had been doing to him from time to time, Niou seemed to tense, straightening his back.

“Aren't you being familiar?" he asked, glancing at Yagyuu from the side of his eye.

Yagyuu‘s first thought was that Niou didn’t like it, or that he was doing something wrong. But looking more closely, he caught something: a hint of a smile, almost hidden behind the hand raised to fix his glasses. Did he himself have that kind of an expression when Niou did something like this? He wasn’t sure, but after seeing it he didn’t hesitate to tilt his head closer to Niou's as he stretched his arm out to take their picture.

“Says the guy who invited me for a sleepover.”

Niou didn’t have a comeback to that. He was also being a bore for the pictures. When Yagyuu changed his angle or the look on his face after each one, Niou had the same slightly frowning expression for all of them. Yagyuu shoved him a bit.

“Hey, you need to be more...”

“Boys!” There was a knock at the door, startling both of them. “Would you join us for evening tea?”

The immersion was gone right at that instant – the second his heart started racing, Yagyuu forgot all thoughts of being like Niou. Please don't come in, please don't come in...

Before he could do anything, Niou cleared his throat and opened his mouth.

“Thank you, mother. We will be down in just a moment.”

Oh no. That wasn’t what his voice sounded like. How could he explain this to her if she...

“There’s some fruit as well. Be sure to wash your hands first!”

“Yes, we will!”

And with that, they could hear the retreating steps.

That was the first time the switch was used on someone other than themselves.

 

\- -

 

No one said anything about what had happened when they went downstairs for the evening tea, now back to themselves.

Perhaps due to the peak of adrenaline both from the scare and the successful save, neither Niou or Yagyuu were particularly sleepy that evening. Even after actually watching the videos they had missed while practising makeup, and eventually turning off the lights, they kept talking in the dark. About tennis, and about their project and what to for it next.

It must have been past midnight when they decided they could speed things up and try something new the following day.

When Yagyuu’s mother and sister left to go out for shopping, he and Niou hurried to put on each other’s appearances again and headed out from the house.

Masquerades at school and such aside, it was the first time for Yagyuu to be out dressed as anyone but himself.

He had to poke Niou once to get him to fully straighten his back. Niou on the other hand gave him a look when he accidentally nodded to a neighbor they happened to pass by.

They were going to their usual place, close to Yagyuu’s home. Thankfully, tennis was a popular pastime within his family’s demographic, so the neighborhood had a decent court, paved with concrete and lined by greenery. Unlike with courts in parks and sports centres, here they didn’t need to worry about any of their teammates wandering over and seeing them – a detail that had been important when they had just started with their shaky non-dominant hands, but even more so now, with wigs on their heads and dressed in each other’s clothes.

The thrill of it had Yagyuu’s pulse racing before they even got to the court. Even so, he didn’t say anything about it. Niou never said anything like that.

When they started rallying, the nerves made him rather bad at first, but gradually the difficulty subsided.

They weren’t officially counting, but it was an even match, with both of them playing in a style different from their everyday experience. Yagyuu fooled Niou with a couple of faints. Niou got some points off him with fast shots. Yagyuu noticed a change in Niou’s form before hitting them that he should get rid off. Niou thanked him nicely when he told him.

By the end of the match, Yagyuu was grinning freely.

It really looked like this could work, and he didn’t think it was just him as Niou thinking that. Probably, even when he went fully back to himself again, he didn’t need to doubt it anymore.

 

\- -

 

“And then I hit the high score for the day! It was only 10 000 points away from the all time high!”

“Wasn’t it 50 000?” Jackal was asking when Yagyuu and Niou joined the team’s table on lunch time on the next Monday.

“You only scored more than me because Jackal is so unfair," Marui complained, pointing a spoon with bits of curry on it at Kirihara. “He let you play at least three times more than me!”

“Yeah, because I had to pay for your parfait before that.”

“Is it my fault that Akaya didn’t ask for it?”

“Marui-senpai is just jealous of my genius!”

Yukimura was vaguely smiling at the three before before turning his attention to the rest of the table, now with all team members present.

“It sounds like you had a fun time at the arcade again. But I hope at least some of you played tennis over the weekend.”

“Yukimura is right," Sanada said, frowning at Kirihara. “Such games are a waste of time.”

“Not necessarily. There is research that shows games can enhance one’s spatial attention, among other things.”

“Yeah! Like Yanagi-senpai said!”

Marui grinned at him. “Hey Akaya, can you explain to Jackal what spatial attention means? Maybe he hasn’t heard that in Japanese before.”

“Um, uh…”

“I know perfectly well what it means.”

“We played on the weekend.”

The team turned their attention towards Niou, who had just spoken. Without asking who the “we” referred to, Yukimura looked at Yagyuu, smiling.

“Is that so?”

Niou kept eating his lunch as if nothing was going on. As Yagyuu thought back to seeing him in brown hair and upturned collar on the other side of the net, he was glad he knew mind reading was only a thing in science fiction books. Even if this was Yukimura. He nodded to their captain.

“Yes. There were a few things that we needed to polish further.”

With no way to understand why exactly Niou was smirking at that, Sanada nodded, face in his usual stern frown.

“Good. Keep that attitude for this week’s practice as well. Especially you, Niou.”

Yukimura let his gaze go over all of them. “Everyone should aim to do a lot better this week. Including you, Sanada.”


	5. Chapter 5

 

That week, Yukimura assigned Yagyuu and Niou to play a full doubles match against Jackal and Marui. They had played against them before in practice, testing this formation or that, but this time Yukimura framed the match differently: it was time to see which one of the pairs was higher at the moment. By the look they exchanged when they heard the command, Yagyuu knew Niou agreed: this would be the most serious match they had played in a while.

Both Niou and Yagyuu had also played Jackal and Marui in singles matches, winning some, losing some. For Yagyuu, an occasional loss at practice had so far been relatively easy to move on from. He wanted to win, yes, but unlike for someone like Kirihara, it wasn’t an end of the world for him to lose to a teammate sometimes, and he could congratulate them without hard feelings.

But this time it was doubles. How he performed would reflect on Niou as well, and it would show whether all their training was paying off. Sure, they couldn’t bring out any of the specialties they had been practicing outside the club yet, but it was a chance to test their overall development as a pair.

When they headed to the courts, Yagyuu felt the excitement of the coming match sharpening his focus to a level he hadn’t felt since the nationals in the summer. This was definitely a match he wanted to win.

Before taking their positions on the court, he and Niou stopped by at the bench to set down their jackets and water bottles. The weather was not particularly cool yet, but as Yagyuu was folding his jersey, he noticed his skin was on goosebumps.

“So. How do you want to play this?”

Niou sounded as calm as ever, but Yagyuu could tell that he, too, was more focused than usual. He considered his answer.

“Well, what do you think about starting with the Bryans’ 2008 championship tactic that we recently talked about?”

“With you serving first? Yeah, ok. We can give that a shot.”

“Understood. Let us do our best, then, Niou-kun.”

“Yeah.”

When Yagyuu started for his position, Niou continued.

“Hey, Yagyuu.”

He turned back to look at him. “What is it?”

Niou grinned at him, eyes sharp beneath his bangs. “Let’s not start losing now.”

 

\- -

 

As it turned out, their track record gained another win.

It was a tough match. Jackal’s shots came with full power, and some of them were simply too close to the corner to catch no matter how much Yagyuu ran. Marui shot them his favourite volleys at the net, bantering with Niou while he was at it.

But even so, Yagyuu could feel they were doing good. After all the practice with Niou, he wasn’t taken by surprise by his moves anymore. And when he didn’t need to concentrate on following Niou so much, he was able to anticipate the flow of the game better than before, save his energy and get ready for making his own returns in good time. As a result, his shots landed in the right place more securely than before, scoring them a decent amount of points.

Jackal and Marui did play good doubles, but there were still openings in their play, and Niou was able to see them. When he told Yagyuu, he noticed them too. And when the two of them started using those holes to their advantage, they could make Jackal and Marui struggle.

They were all drenched in sweat when the match came to end at 6-4 with Yagyuu’s high-speed shot.

Yagyuu didn’t show his satisfaction at the net when they shook hands with Marui, visibly disappointed, and Jackal, not happy to lose but calling it a good game. Niou, too, displayed a cool appearance when they were getting their feedback from Yukimura and Yanagi.

It was only after that, on their way to the clubroom, that Niou offered his fist to Yagyuu. Nodding, Yagyuu raised his to Niou’s. When their knuckles touched, it felt they were on the same page. It was winning matches like that together that they should be going for. That, or something even higher.  


\- - 

 

Next weekend, they were out practising again. They had decided to go for a bigger tennis park this time, and with luck, try to find some good doubles matches to play.

Since there was a risk of running into people they knew, they had come as themselves. A lot of other people were spending the sunny autumn weekend playing as well, and when Yagyuu asked politely, some of them agreed to play against him and Niou.

Many of the people at the courts were significantly older than them, and played decent, if relaxed type of tennis. Even though it would have gone against good manners to start playing really hard in such a setting, it was good practise, rallying against people they had never met before and whose styles they didn’t know.

While on a short break from the games, Niou checked his phone, and scoffing, showed it to Yagyuu. There was a message from Yukimura on the Rikkai team chat.

_‘It's a nice weather today, isn't it! A good day for tennis, don’t you all think? ^_^’_

They exchanged a look – there was an unspoken rule to not complain about Yukimura. No matter how much he was pushing them to do more, even on their days off.

“Oh my. Well, he is not wrong, it is a good day for tennis.”

“Yeah. We should send a picture to the chat and say we’re already on it. I bet Yukimura will use us more if he knows we’re doing extra again.”

“Well, why not.”

“I'll send you something so you can post it.”

“Me? Why don’t you send it yourself?”

“Do I ever report what I’m doing? It’s more you.”

“But I wouldn’t take a picture of it.”

“Don’t sweat that. Here, send this one that I took of you last weekend. You were me then, so it works. I’ll send it to you.”

The picture was of Yagyuu practicing his serve as Niou during that first time they had been out switched. It was taken from behind, so you couldn't see his face, but Yagyuu hesitated.

“Are you sure we should show this to anyone at this early stage? My understanding was that we might not be completely finished with the appearance yet.”

“Come on, Yagyuu. It’s your back, and from distance. Can you even tell the difference yourself?”

A bit annoyed by the manner in which Niou spoke to him, Yagyuu pointed at the picture. “I believe my shoulders are slightly wider than yours.”

“Not noticeable. No one is looking that closely unless they are crushing on you or something.”

“A crush? Just what are you saying?”

“I’m saying no one cares. Come on, let’s get some more points from Yukimura.”

Reluctant as he was, Yagyuu gave up the debate and started typing a message for the chat.

Still, what had Niou implied just now? They were a boys’ sports team – weren’t there many other reasons more likely than crushes for someone to look at any given team member in detail? Maybe they were looking at their form and technique, or comparing the results of their muscle training. Even he and Niou themselves needed to look at each other a great deal for the sake of the switch, and that didn’t mean anything other than that they were doing their preparation properly. Right?

Not that what Niou was implying was impossible - Yagyuu knew that quite well.

He showed the message draft to Niou. “Would this do?”

_‘Dear Yukimura-kun, team – indeed, the day is quite pleasant for tennis practice! Niou-kun sends his greetings as well.”_

“Here you go with your little lies again," Niou laughed. “But sure, sounds like you.”

Yagyuu sent the text along with the picture of himself as Niou. “Please don’t call me a liar for observing basic niceties.”

“Whatever.” Niou started choosing a sticker to send to the group. Soon, there was a message from Kirihara.

_‘where are u??? can i come too??’_

“Uh, no," Niou said immediately.

“Well, I don’t see why not," Yagyuu said instead, and went on to send Kirihara the address.

 

\- -

 

The following week wasn’t so good for their interactions. Niou hadn’t been very sociable when Kirihara had joined them for tennis on the weekend, and Yagyuu had been somewhat unhappy by his attitude. And once he had gotten annoyed, he had also remained offended by Niou’s comments about him lying when he was just trying to be nice. Niou had said something to the same effect before, and Yagyuu didn’t like it very much.

At school, Niou also pulled one of his pranks again. Yagyuu’s fellow members in the student council recounted the story of a student who had fallen off her feet upon finding a live frog in her locker. Yagyuu did not mention Niou’s name at the meeting because he had no proof, but he was quite sure about his assumption.

When he asked Niou about it later, he wouldn’t give him a clear answer. That was another thing Yagyuu sometimes found annoying about Niou. Sometimes he acted so familiarly with Yagyuu, but sometimes it seemed like sharing a bit of information or clearly saying the truth was the most difficult thing for him to do. To Yagyuu, that kind of thing was very difficult to understand.

Niou was also not very enthusiastic even when something that should have been fun came up at the club. Apparently the school encouraged all its competitive teams to partake in some team building activities a couple of times a year and covered the costs for it. For the Rikkai boys’ tennis team, the excursion for this autumn would be to Enoshima, an island known for its shrines, caves and a observation tower, just west of the city. Sanada had suggested visiting the Iwaya caves specifically, and that’s where the team headed.

There weren’t that many people around on a cool late October day. As the team walked through the island and the many stairs on the way to the caves, Yagyuu mostly chatted with Jackal, asking about popular sightseeing spots in his former hometown in Brazil. Niou didn’t seem very talkative that day, mostly trailing behind the group by himself. Yagyuu let him be, glancing back from time to time to make sure he at least stayed with them instead of running off on his own way.

Everyone had visited the island before, but not all of them had come all the way to the caves shaped by the sea before. They were all given candles to hold on to at the start of the tour, and it made for a nice atmosphere, even if the only routes available were actually rather touristy and easy.

Marui and Kirihara were too loud in the caves, especially at the attraction where one could ask the dragon god about the future. Kirihara was the first to try banging the dragon statue’s drum, all excited to read the simple “yes” or “no” answer to his question in statue’s flashing eyes.

“Oh yeah! It said I’m gonna be the best in Rikkai!”

“Yeah, maybe in like a year from now when we all have left the club and it’s only you left!”

“You wish! I’ll get you first, Marui-senpai!”

“Oh yeah? I bet a month’s parfaits that you won’t get more than 6-3 from me!”

“You’re on! Wanna play today?”

“Excuse me, Marui-kun, Kirihara-kun," Yagyuu interrupted them, “but would you please allow the next people to proceed now?”

“But Akaya was so slow I didn’t even get to play the drum yet!”

Yagyuu skipped his own turn to alleviate the line that was forming behind their team. Following him, Sanada was saying he didn’t believe in such superstitious things, but in the end banged the drum anyway when Yukimura did as well.

When the whole team was out of the caves and started heading back up from the shore, Yagyuu noticed Niou was staying behind the group again, looking at the waves hitting the rocky stretches of the beach. The day was grey, and the line between the sea and sky in the horizon was not very clear.

Yagyuu sighed. Thinking it wouldn't be a very nice outing for Niou if he just sulked alone through all of it, he slowed his step to fall in pace with him. Niou noticed him and nodded. Yagyuu opened the conversation.

“Did you ask the dragon god anything?”

“Yeah, but I think it was wrong. Did you?”

“I didn't. It was a bit too crowded at the time.”

“Huh.”

Yagyuu proceeded to ask about Niou's impression of the caves and the statues inside it, and so they got into a inconsequential conversation like that. By the time the team had climbed up the numerous stairs back to the central area of the island, some of the awkwardness of the past week had begun to fade, and Yagyuu was glad he had made the effort to talk to Niou after all.

There was a discussion within the team about whether they would have early dinner at one of the restaurants on the island like Sanada and Yanagi initially suggested, but in the end they decided to head back to Kamakura to eat in Jackal’s family’s ramen restaurant instead. Most of the team had not visited, but Marui was very enthusiastic about how good it was, and everyone wanted to try it out.

On their way down from the island, Yagyuu and Niou were walking ahead of the others, who had taken their time buying souvenirs and snacks at the shops crowding the main entrance street. 

As Niou was telling him about a pile of diecut candy shaped like throwing stars he had made last summer, they suddenly heard a dull thud, and then Sanada’s voice behind them.

“Yukimura!”

 

\- -

 

No one went to Jackal’s restaurant that day. Yagyuu had called an ambulance, and after it had taken Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi had decided to go after him to the hospital. Jackal and Marui had set to take Kirihara home, no matter how he insisted they didn’t need to. He looked like he was going to cry any moment.

They were all shocked. The captain had been breathing, but his pulse had felt slow and he hadn’t regained consciousness in the time before the ambulance had arrived.

It wasn’t necessarily anything very serious. Sometimes people fainted from exhaustion, dehydration, or hunger, and would be fine soon after. Yanagi had managed to tell them a similar thing had happened to his sister in the summer. Yagyuu had supported this story – he had heard from his father, a doctor, how that kind of thing happened relatively often, even to people who were otherwise in good health. Maybe Yukimura had just pushed himself a little bit too hard at practice lately. But Yanagi’s voice was uneven, and Yagyuu was probably not the only one who noticed.

After everyone else went on their way, Niou said he too would go home, and didn’t say no when Yagyuu offered to walk with him.

Niou had been quiet through it all, staying out of the way with Marui, Jackal, and Kirihara while Yagyuu handled the situation with Yanagi and Sanada.

It was clear he was shaken like all the rest of them. Even now, he was frowning in worry. It was the first time Yagyuu saw such an expression from him.

As they walked, Niou asked for his opinion.

“Do you think Yanagi is right?”

Yagyuu considered his words.

“I do hope so. But to be honest, I am not sure.”

“He didn’t seem that convinced to me.”

“Well, no one can know what happened for sure. I am sure Yanagi-kun and Sanada-kun will inform everyone as soon as they learn something from the hospital.”

“What kind of a doctor your dad was again?”

“He is an internist.”

“Do they do ER stuff?”

“No, the hospital has specialized staff for that.”

“Oh.”

They didn’t talk much beyond that. Despite telling both himself and Niou that they just had to wait to hear more, it was difficult not to think about what exactly had happened to Yukimura, when would he wake up and how bad it might be.

Yagyuu had seen a few cases of fainting before, but never anyone staying unconscious like Yukimura had. The disturbing feeling from witnessing it still lingered.

Yagyuu had assumed he and Niou would bade each other goodbye and he would get on a train when they came near the station closest to Niou’s home, but when he said nothing and kept looking down, Yagyuu decided he would walk Niou all the way home. It wasn’t like he wanted to be alone yet either.

When they made it Niou’s homestreet, his mother happened to be out, watering the plants by the house. She looked glad to see them.

“Oh, Hiroshi-kun, what a nice surprise!”

Yagyuu glanced at Niou. This was probably not a good timing to meet again. It would have been better to go separate ways earlier, after all, but he couldn’t just leave now without exchanging some words first.

“Ah, Niou-san, hello.”

“I keep telling this boy to bring you over again, looks like he finally listened to his mother. But weren’t you supposed to have a team outing today? I wasn’t expecting you back until the evening.”

Niou kicked a small pebble, with his hands in his pockets. “Yeah. But it ended already.”

“Oh?” It seemed like his mother caught on to something being wrong. “Why is that? Was there a fight or something? You seem so down.”

“No.”

Seeing Niou’s reluctance to speak, Yagyuu decided to explain in his stead.

“Actually, there was an unfortunate incident. Our captain, Yukimura-kun suddenly fainted, and was taken to a hospital just now.”

“Oh dear, really? That’s terrible! Does he have some illness?”

“Not that we know of. Two of our teammates are now there, so we hope to hear more soon.”

“Poor boy, that Yukimura-kun. I hope it’s nothing serious!”

“Yeah," said Niou. His mother gave him a empathetic look, and reached out to squeeze his arm in a comforting gesture. Niou looked away from the both of them.

Taking that as his cue to leave, Yagyuu took a step back.

“Well, I believe I should be going home now to wait for the news.”

Still holding on to Niou’s arm, his mother addressed him. “Oh, you were not going to stay?”

“Ah, no. I was just accompanying Niou-kun on the way and was planning to go home.”

“I see. It’s good to be with your family at a time like this. But before you go…”

Pulling Niou along, she opened her arm to reach at Yagyuu. Then, she took both of them into a hug.

“Don’t worry too much, you two. I’m sure everything will be alright.”

 

\- -

 

Within a couple of hours, a new Rikkai Line chat was established. The only difference was that the new one didn’t include Yukimura. The first message was from Yanagi.

_‘Seiichi has regained consciousness. We will share further information later.’_


	6. Chapter 6

Yukimura came back to school in November, but the brief relief the team felt turned out to be premature. His condition worsened, not allowing him to participate in the club activities as usual and causing a lot of worry among the all of the members. Soon after, Yukimura was diagnosed with a serious illness, then taken into a hospital in December.

Sanada took up leadership of the club, and by the end of the year, practice was even more demanding than before. Still, no one in the regular team complained. After getting over the first shock of how the situation had changed so quickly, everyone knew what to do. They owed it to Yukimura to work hard while he couldn’t.

For a while, Yagyuu and Niou didn’t have chances to do their own training. On weekdays the practice at club was so hard that adding more on top of it seemed unreasonable. Then, Sanada decided to add more weekend practice to the team’s schedule. But no one protested.

Personally, Yagyuu found it appropriate that at such a time the team was practicing together, so for the time being, their own project would have to wait. Niou didn’t push for it either.

They kept winning more and more matches together. A new achievement was winning against their upperclassmen Mouri and another third year who still hadn’t left the club despite not being in the team anymore. Yagyuu almost felt bad about it. While everyone who would form the competitive team in next summer’s tournament was training diligently, some of the upperclassmen, including Mouri, were not putting in their best effort anymore, and that caused some tension within the club members. That Niou and Yagyuu won against them didn’t exactly help, but it wouldn’t have done to play less seriously against them to avoid such awkwardness, either.

The team visited Yukimura on Christmas day. It was less than two weeks when they had seen him in the club, but the change from him standing on the courts giving orders in their team uniform, to him sitting on a hospital bed in pajamas made it feel like a longer time had passed.

Yukimura seemed calm. He smiled at the cake Marui brought, and at the card trick Niou showed him. Yagyuu himself offered to come study with him on some evenings for company.

Kirihara tried asking the captain about his condition and when he would be back, but Sanada admonished him for his lack of consideration. Yukimura smiled at that too, but didn’t answer the question.

 

\- -

 

In the evening of the last day of school before the New Year’s holidays, Niou sent Yagyuu a message.

_‘hey. we need to step up our game.’_

 

_\- -_

New Year’s holiday routines kept Yagyuu tied to his family for several days. It was one of the few times in a year when his father had some consecutive days off, and during those days it was simply not possible to run off to do something on his own. Niou complained – apparently he would have more than happy to escape his own family gatherings, saying in his texts they were a bit too crazy – but settled when Yagyuu was able to organize a full day and another sleepover for the next weekend, before they would go back to school.

When Niou had said they should go forward with their project, he didn’t mean more tennis. That was to come, too, but before they could take more chances to practice playing fully switched, they needed to gain some security that it wouldn’t be a problem if they ran into someone they knew. And security, they knew, came with practice.

They had the looks down quite well by now, and their voices were getting there, so the thing that required attention next was the right speech and behaviour. For that, they needed to start a different kind of a test: going out to where people could see them and talk to them, and where they would need to portray each other to other people.

Niou was pretty sure he wouldn’t have too much difficulty presenting himself as Yagyuu, but Yagyuu did want to see that for himself before he would consent to Niou taking his place in his social environment. Granted, this project was different from the times when Niou had posed as someone else without their permission to deliberately make them do something out of character for fun, because now the whole trick relied on no one noticing anything strange before they decided to come out with it for maximal effect.

Meanwhile, Yagyuu was still not fully certain about his own ability to change his behaviour into Niou’s. It did go against his own standards, after all, and learning to step out of them was a task of its own.

For their first test, they decided to try spending a day as each other in central Kamakura, walking around the city that was gradually returning to normal life after the New Year’s celebrations. Niou called it a date – probably just to annoy Yagyuu, going by his usual expression of mischief when Yagyuu asked him to refrain from using such misleading language.

When the decided day came, they met at the karaoke place again. This time not for voice practice or signing, but to get changed. It was a bit expensive just for that purpose, but Yagyuu firmly refused Niou's suggestion to just sneak into a Uniqlo changing room together.

“I still think it would’ve been fine," Niou said, his voice muffled as he was pulling his sweater off over his head. “Like, ‘hey, come give your opinion on this’, and ‘by all means, let me take a closer look’. It would have been totally acceptable.”

“Perhaps, if it took less than a minute.” Yagyuu folded his cardigan and shirt lightly before giving them for Niou to change into. “I think we require a lot more time to prepare.”

“We gotta practice that too. Fast prep.”

“For sure.” Yagyuu, still wearing an undershirt, pulled Niou's sweater on top. “But isn’t that something we can do that separately at home? It is mostly the wigs and cosmetics that are the challenge, after all.”

Niou buttoned his shirt all the way up. “I'm starting to have the eyeliner thing down. That's like the most annoying part to do quickly. Did I tell you we need to use brown instead of black? It's a lot more natural. Had to buy it myself, ‘cause apparently my sis doesn’t do natural. She only had black and some crazy colors.”

“Oh. Did you bring it with you today?”

“Yeah. And I got one for you too, so you can keep it.”

“Is that so? Thank you Niou-kun, that is very kind of you.”

While they were putting on their wigs and doing their small touches of makeup, the karaoke equipment, forgotten for now, kept prompting them to initiate song selection.

 

\- -

  


When they made it out and got to wandering around the city, it took a while for Yagyuu to convince himself that no one was staring at him because they knew it was him dressed up as Niou, but rather the expected gazes one gathered when one stood out like Niou did.

Yagyuu wasn’t used to being looked at that much. Some stared, some frowned. A few girls turned to whisper and giggle with each other. Personally he found it rather distasteful, but reminded himself that even if he himself didn’t much care for such attention, maybe Niou liked it.

Niou himself was an interesting sight even as Yagyuu, at least for Yagyuu himself. Back straight, face in a neutral smile, looking all proper and bright eyed with his glasses and Yagyuu’s double breasted winter coat, he looked happy to be spending a day off at the city.

Not that Yagyuu usually felt like he was holding something back, but it was somewhat fun to be able to just grin at things like that openly.

They went to a bookstore first. Niou took ages reading the backs of a dozen novels before buying something Yagyuu already had. He didn’t want to break role to tell him that – at least it was a good choice of book.

Yagyuu’s mother had given them money to go eat out, so they went for ramen. Niou had a bad habit of sometimes leaving food on the plate, so Yagyuu did that for the role as well, even though he could have still continued eating. Niou, as Yagyuu, was careful to eat everything and thank the staff for a delicious meal.

They didn't have any specific plan after that. Even though most of the New Year events were already over, there were still a lot of people heading towards the nearby shrines. Niou asked if he had visited already, and Yagyuu guessed no, so they decided to go too.

Niou led the way on the shrine grounds, and Yagyuu was again amused to note how well Niou could follow the etiquette if he actually tried. He himself felt quite rebellious ignoring the rules on purpose – washing his hands in the wrong order at the purification spring and stepping on the line separating the inner part of the shrine from the yard.

When they clapped their hands and bowed their heads, Yagyuu realized he had no idea what Niou would pray for.

 

\- -

 

“Ugh, my back is killing me!”

Yagyuu had barely closed the door of his room behind them when Niou had already crashed down on his bed, now in his own appearance.

Honestly, after the long day Yagyuu would have liked to do the same.

Being out in the city as Niou had definitely been an interesting, even exciting experience. During the day, they had passed by some students from their school during the day, and no one had seemed to notice anything. They hadn’t ran into anyone they would have really needed to speak to, though, so communicating had been limited to talk between themselves and short interactions with restaurant and store staff. For Yagyuu, it had been a welcome, easy enough start.

Winter had turned out to be a good season to try the disguises out. The coats and scarves hid some features that would have been easier to spot in light summer clothing, giving some added sense of security. The annoying part had been getting out of the disguise afterwards. Spending more money on a karaoke booth didn’t seem that tempting anymore, and because Yagyuu was still reluctant about the fitting room idea, they had ended up finding a quiet restroom where they could get in and out of a stall without anyone seeing them. It had been cramped, and Niou complained about the cold – not entirely unjustifiably – but they had managed to change back to themselves.

Something they had still struggled with during the switch was their postures. After a few hours had passed, both of them had started slipping back to their natural states, requiring them to poke each other several times to get back to form. On the way back to Yagyuu’s, Niou told him even he had rarely spent that long time in character before, so he too was exhausted – hence the liberal use of Yagyuu’s bed once they made it home.

Niou monopolizing the space to lie down on, Yagyuu had to settle with the chair by his desk.

“It was unexpectedly tiring, wasn’t it?”

“You had it easier.”

“I believe your posture is unnatural for me as mine is for you.”

“But yours is like constantly stretching yourself upward. Mine is normal and relaxed.”

Yagyuu scoffed. He had always been complimented for his good posture in physical checks.

“Too relaxed, I would say. I believe it would do good for you to fix your posture, too”.

“Don't nag me. Sanada already bitches about it enough.”

It was true – Yagyuu had heard it in the club room, and while he agreed with Sanada, he also knew the amount of good that seemed to do.

“Sanada-kun has been rather worried about various things lately.”

Niou crossed his hands behind his head.

“Didn’t he flip at you about something too this week?”

“Well, I wouldn’t word it like that. But he did express a wish that I should put more effort into my serve practice.”

“Heh, because you’re always slacking off _so_ much.”

A bit pleased Niou was on his side, Yagyuu fixed his glasses.

“But it is understandable he feels the need to push us. I’m sure Yukimura-kun will expect to see good development when he returns to practice.”

“We don’t even know when that is, though.”

It had been around a month since Yukimura had been hospitalized. The team had visited him together once since then, and some of them individually. It seemed like especially Sanada was in the habit of visiting often, as was Yanagi. Unlike Sanada, Yanagi would report to the team chat – the one without Yukimura – about how their captain was doing. But as Niou noted, the reports never included any note as to when they could except him to return. By now, Kirihara had stopped asking about it too. Yagyuu didn’t have a very good feeling about it, but what else was there to do but to hope for the best?

“We will just have to believe that he’ll make a quick recovery. And keep working hard as he would expect of us.”

“I guess so.”

After a bit of contemplation, Niou turned to his side, propping his head up to look at Yagyuu. His expression turned mischievous.

“We’ve been working hard today, right?”

Normally, one wouldn’t describe just spending a day in the city in such terms. Yagyuu had to be a bit amused at it.

“I suppose so.”

“So, how was it? Did you have fun being me?”

“Well… it was interesting.”

“Interesting how?”

“Well, for one thing, I think people’s reactions were rather different from my usual experience.”

“Such as?”

While Yagyuu didn’t specifically want to bring up the negativity towards Niou, he trusted him to understand the sentiment – that Yagyuu, too, was on Niou’s side on this.

“I felt that just with your looks, one gathers quite some disapproving gazes. Especially from older people.”

“Oh? I don’t think I get that so much, maybe it’s just you being self-conscious.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. I mean, you probably think people care more than they actually do.”

Before Yagyuu came to an argument, Niou continued.

“But yeah, I thought it was different too. Like, people were just smiling to you. To me, I mean.”

“Were they?”

“Yeah. It was kind of like, everyone would like you, heh. Including all these good looking girls pretending they weren’t looking at you.”

“Excuse me? I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Oh come on, sure you do. They were so obvious.”

“On the contrary, my experience was that it was your appearance that gathered more such attention.”

“But you could get the really pretty ones. Good for you.”

“Please don’t be crude, Niou-kun.”

“Anyway, the point is, today just confirmed this’ll be good. I could tell no one would ever expect anything coming from a guy looking like you. I was right to recruit you for this.”

“You are making me sound like a decoy for something very sinister here.”

Niou grinned at him. “Nah, you’re gonna be in this as much as I am.”

 

\- -

 

Eventually they were called downstairs for dinner. Niou complained he was not hungry yet, but Yagyuu didn’t have much sympathy for him, himself being rather hungry after eating more lightly to stay in character earlier. In the table, his mother encouraged Niou to eat properly, something Yagyuu took as a sign that she was growing more comfortable with him – she was almost scolding him for trying to skip eating any greens.

They helped clean the table afterwards, and Yagyuu’s mother made them a pot of rooibos tea with sugar and soy milk before excusing herself to take the first turn to bathe. There was a Ghibli movie on TV, and Yagyuu and Niou settled in the living room to watch it together with Shiori. She was still a bit shy around Niou, but seemed happy to sit between them on the sofa, chatting and having tea and mandarins for dessert.

At some point, it was her turn to bathe, and then father came home. The movie was left without much attention as he sat down with them for a while, asking about how tennis was going lately. They talked a bit about Yukimura as well. Yagyuu saw how Niou was listening closely when his father talked briefly about how such conditions as their captain’s were usually diagnosed, but even when Niou asked, he wouldn’t really go into how it would be treated.

After father had bathed too, Yagyuu let Niou go first, and spent the time preparing his futon and reading a bit as he waited for his own turn. There was some activity in the team chat – this time the one with Yukimura included. Yagyuu only glanced at the previews, but apparently Kirihara and Marui were getting into a debate about something totally not related to tennis. Sanada told them to take it out of the team chat, but Yukimura said he didn’t mind, so the string of messages continued.

Niou took his time in the bath, and by the time it was finally Yagyuu’s turn, the water was only lukewarm. Still, he was feeling rather content as he sat down in the water and went over the day in his mind.

Niou was now visiting for the third time, and staying over for the second. Yagyuu was glad everyone seemed to be getting along better. His family appeared to have come to see Niou’s nicer side, and Niou himself was acting differently from when they were at school or practice, or when it was just the two of them. Their teammates would have been surprised to see Niou the way he had been just now, peeling mandarins for Shiori and talking with their father quite respectfully. Of course, no one would ever know – they were under the agreement not to talk about these sleepovers with anyone.

Going out switched had certainly been taxing – not only physically, but also mentally – but the fact that it had worked out without any troubles had been an important milestone for the project. Still, Yagyuu felt that there should be something more to their preparation. When he thought about using the trick on people who knew them, he had to wonder if they still understood each other well enough to really present each other without any misses. It was kind of like in his mystery novels - if one didn’t understand the character’s inner thoughts and motives, one could end up with all kinds of misconceptions about their words and actions as well.

For sure, Yagyuu knew a lot more about Niou now than he had a year ago. But as he had realised at the shrine earlier that day, there were still sides to Niou that were a complete mystery to him.

 

\- -

 

When Yagyuu returned to his room in his pajamas, Niou was lying on his futon, a pillow propped under his chest and chin, eyes fixed on his phone. He seemed to be typing something.

“Is the discussion in the group chat still continuing?” Yagyuu asked as he sat down on his bed.

“Yeah. We’re recommending movies to Yukimura. Sanada has crap taste. We should go visit him next week and bring some DVDs so he doesn’t die from boredom watching only Kurosawa films.”

“Well, it is not bad to get familiar with the classics.”

“Would you watch them every night? Don’t say yes.”

Yagyuu hmphed at Niou, and started browsing the chat on his phone. The discussion had gotten pretty long during the time he hadn’t been looking.

Originally the chat without Yukimura had been created to inform the team of what was happening without him himself having to see it. At the time, Yagyuu had agreed that it would have been awkward to discuss someone’s condition in a situation where he couldn’t participate. As some time passed, a lot of the club and team related messages moved there as well – some of it really wasn’t relevant for Yukimura, as he couldn’t join them, so they thought they shouldn’t bother him with such messages. But sometimes it meant that the chat with Yukimura included went a while without any activity.

“Matters of taste in movies aside, it is nice you and Kirihara-kun are chatting with Yukimura-kun like this. He must be happy to hear from the team after a while.”

“I guess so.”

However, when Yagyuu got to the beginning of the movie discussion, he saw something that suddenly took away from his satisfaction.

In one of his messages, Niou was saying he was currently watching videos at home. Obviously, it wasn’t true – he hadn’t been home since morning.

Yes, they had agreed not to tell the team about their preparation for the switch or anything major related to it, like visiting each other. But not telling them about that was one thing. Directly lying to them was something else.

Yagyuu was going to say something about it right away, but as he looked down at Niou lying on his stomach, slightly smiling at his phone, he hesitated.

Niou was still doing a nice thing, talking to their captain.

Despite the uneasy feeling from seeing Niou lie, Yagyuu reluctantly chose to let it be. After skimming through what seemed like the main points of the conversation, he typed a message recommending the Hercule Poirot movies, ending with a good night’s wish.

Niou laughed at the message, and within a couple of minutes, had edited and sent the group a picture of Yagyuu and Poirot side by side. Kirihara seemed to find it very amusing.

“Very funny, Niou-kun.”

Niou finished typing a reply and turned on his side, grinning at Yagyuu.

“Oh, I am glad you liked it,” he said, using Yagyuu’s voice.

Deliberately ignoring his teasing, Yagyuu put his phone away.

“Are you ready to go to bed soon? Would you still like anything to eat or drink?”

“Ugh, no. I’m still full. Didn’t we just eat?”

“Well, we are supposed to eat properly to build up muscle.”

“I’ve already eaten super properly today. Anyway. I’m not sleepy yet. Wanna watch some tennis?”

“I suppose we could.”

As Yagyuu was getting his laptop, Niou invited himself back on Yagyuu’s bed, leaning his back against the wall. Yagyuu still found this habit rather overly familiar, but feeling it was too late to start complaining about it now, let it go and settled to sit next to Niou.

They started watching a doubles match from the French Open a few years back, something Yanagi had recommended for Niou to take a look at.

Even though it was useful, they hardly had the time to watch matches during practice, so doing that was something that everyone was expected to do on their own. Yagyuu didn’t usually find much time for it, but the few times he had done this with Niou had been useful for discovering new ideas to try out.

“That was a cool play. Wind back?”

“Sure.”

“We could do that switched.”

“It is one possibility. But I think I still need more practice at the net.”

“Yeah, we should change that up more. You can play net tomorrow.”

“Alright.”

After half an hour into the game, their commentary was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Boys?” The voice was Yagyuu’s mother’s. “Please put away the match soon and go to bed. It’s getting late, and you can watch more tomorrow.”

“Sorry, mother. We will.”

“Good. Sleep well!”

As her steps retreated, Niou put the volume on low, and spoke in a more quiet voice. “Was she listening by the door or something?”

“I wouldn’t think so," Yagyuu said, but was glad they had only been talking about the video, not their own plans.

“I want to finish watching the set.”

“I think that’s fine, it shouldn’t take too long.”

They didn’t comment much on the last part of the game. When it was over, they took turns brushing their teeth. The hallway was already dark, and there was no light coming from Shiori’s room either.

Yagyuu was expecting to find Niou back on his futon when he returned, but he was still sitting on Yagyuu’s bed, again with his phone in his hand. When he noticed Yagyuu, he gestured him to sit next to him.

“What is it? I thought we were going to go to sleep now.”

“In a minute. I wanna go over the pics we took today.”

There wasn’t much on Niou’s phone – being Yagyuu, he had only taken a couple of not very interesting shots of Yagyuu as Niou at the shrine, where the other domestic tourists had done the same. Yagyuu hadn’t seen the picture yet during the day, so he took the phone when Niou offered it and examined it more closely.

It could have been a photo of the real Niou, but it was him.

“You really cannot tell the difference in this picture.”

“Right? Show the ones you took.”

Yagyuu’s phone had a bit more. As Niou, he had taken a selfie of them at the karaoke place when they were done with the transformation, then a couple pictures of Niou at the ramen place, a few more selfies with the both of them at the shrine, as well as pictures of their hands holding the fortunes they had gotten for the year.

“Heh, these are pretty good," Niou commented as he zoomed in on their faces. He seemed to like one of the pictures from the shrine especially, stopping to look at it several times as he scrolled the pictures back and forth. Zooming in to Yagyuu’s appearance as Niou, he started grinning.

“Maybe I should set this as my profile on Line. Let them get used to me looking like this.”

“Do you think it’s that similar?”

“Yeah. And it’ll be small anyway. Send these to me.”

“You do the same with yours, please.”

After the exchange of pictures, Yagyuu proposed they go to bed and turn off the lights, so Niou moved to his futon on the floor. He still didn’t seem sleepy when Yagyuu switched off the light.

After a moment, he heard Niou chuckle.

They were already speaking quietly before, but in dark it almost felt like he should whisper.

“What is it?”

“Thinking how pissed Sanada will be when we reveal this.”

Yagyuu closed his eyes.

“You sound like you are looking forward to it.”

“It’s a bonus.”

“A necessary bad, I would say.”

“Which one of us do you think he’ll be worse on? You for getting sneaky, or me for corrupting you?”

“Corrupting me?”

“That’s what he would think.”

“I hope he can appreciate that this is for developing our skills and winning.”

“If he can’t, I’m sure Yukimura can.”

“I would assume so.”

“If we can fool him, we can fool anyone. Depends on the situation probably. I passed for him as Sanada once, but there was some distance. A couple of times I’m sure he noticed, but played along.”

“Is that so? Why do you suppose he did that?”

“Maybe he wanted to see Sanada do something interesting for a change?” Niou suggested. “Did you know they’ve been friends since like elementary school? He’s probably been boring since then.”

“That’s not a very nice thing to say about Sanada-kun," Yagyuu scolded, though he was actually more caught by the thought of Yukimura and Sanada being friends for such a long time. “But no, I did not know that.”

“Yeah. I heard from Yanagi. They’ve been playing tennis together for ages.”

“Well, that is easy to believe. One can tell they are both very serious about it.”

“Yeah.”

Yagyuu wondered what it was like. He didn’t have friends like that, whom he had known for such a long time and had such a strong shared topic of interest.

Well, perhaps until now.

Of course, he and Niou didn’t go so far back, but since starting their project, they had definitely spent a lot of time together. And yes, somewhere along the way he had started thinking of Niou as a friend. Different from the rest of their teammates. Closer.

Looking back, he could still recall how unlikely the him of a year ago would have found that.

Niou, on the other hand, had never seemed hesitant about approaching him, or about anything else after that.

That reminded Yagyuu there was something he wanted to ask Niou.

“Niou-kun.”

“Hm?”

“Can I ask for your honest opinion as to what you thought of the way I presented you today?”

“Huh.” He seemed to think for a while. “Mostly it was pretty good. I mean, you missed some dialect, but that's fine. No one outside my family will notice.”

“Oh.” Yagyuu didn't like making mistakes. “It would help me study if you would give me the exact area for reference.”

“Nah, it’s better if you just copy me.”

“I would still like to familiarize myself better by reading on it.”

“But then you might pick up stuff I don't use.”

It was a valid point, but it was also Niou avoiding giving that piece of information. Yagyuu knew better than to keep pressing for it, though he still would have liked to know.

“Well. Anything else?”

“Some small stuff, yeah. But it’s not like we’ll need absolutely everything to match for pulling it on the court. Like, it’s probably only like max couple of hours before our match. Won’t matter much if you eat like me or not.”

“That is true, of course. So in that sense, beyond tennis, the most important thing to get right would be the interaction with our teammates.”

“Yeah. Should be easy.”

“Do you think so?”

“We’re together at the club every day. It’s not like you don’t have enough material to pull from.”

“Sure. But to be honest, I don’t think I’m always exactly clear on your thoughts, or what you would do in a certain situation.”

“Hm. Maybe we can test that.”

“In what way?”

“How about this? Let’s come up with some scenarios. I’ll say what you’d do, you say what I’d do.”

“Interesting.” It sounded like a good challenge, and he was curious to hear what Niou would say about him, too. The plan to sleep completely forgotten, Yagyuu turned to his side towards Niou’s direction, eyes open though not seeing clearly in the dark without his glasses. “Sure, we can try that.”

“Ok, I’ll start. We’re in practice and want to do formations, but Sanada decides to waste everyone’s whole evening on muscle training.”

“I wouldn’t call it a waste. It is important to...”

“Don’t think what you’d think,” Niou interrupted. “I’ll go first. You’ll be annoyed too, but try to pretend you’re not and even make excuses for him. And still thank him for a good practice. Not sure why, but that’s you.”

The commentary aside, at least Yagyuu could recognize himself from the actions Niou described. He then tried to put himself in Niou’s position.

“Well… I suppose you would complain to me first.” He remembered Niou on long water breaks, observing others and immersed in thought during practice. Yagyuu had sometimes thought he was being a bit lazy, but not anymore. “And perhaps you would limit the intensity of practice and rather contemplate on something.”

“Like what?”

“Like things to add on our private training agenda.”

“Huh. Yeah, something like that. Ok, your turn for the scenario.”

“Hmm… Well, you have your own practice menu to go through, but an underclassman asks for your help with their technique.”

“I’m pretty sure that just happens to you. But you’d help him anyway, and offer to take his email or Line so you can send a video or some other pointers. Even if it’s away from your own practice.”

“That sounds right. You, on the other hand, would tell him to ask me.”

“Hah. Yeah, I would.”

“You have to stop doing that. Us upperclassmen all have the responsibility to guide the younger players. They will be carrying the team after us.”

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway. You pick up your jersey after a match and it’s got gum stuck on it.”

“Is this why you were talking about all those unreasonable gum flavours a while back? So, you would order something like that and prank Marui-kun by substituting his usual ones with them?”

Niou sounded impressed.

“Huh, I thought you were barely listening.”

“I didn’t think some of the flavours you mentioned really existed.”

“Maybe they don’t. Anyway, you’d make it a common good type of thing and lecture Marui, even though you’re just pissed that he messed up your jersey.”

“It is a common good issue. If everyone acted like that, the club environment would be unpleasant for all of us.”

“I still think my way was more fun. Your turn.”

“Hm. You were scheduled to have a training match against one of the third years, but they do not come to practice after all.”

“Are you just talking about Mouri, or…? You’d be like ‘perhaps they got held back by a teacher’ while actually judging them pretty hard in your head.”

“Well, it is not really a respectable example that some of them are setting for the lowerclassmen. Be that as it may, I assume you wouldn’t mind so much, and would take the chance to do something you yourself wanted instead.”

“Yeah, before Sanada assigns any more muscle training or some other pointless match instead.”

“Are you that unhappy with our current practice menu?”

“It’s not all bad, but not all what I’d choose.”

“Perhaps you could try discussing that with Sanada-kun and see what he thinks of your suggestions.”

“Meh, we can just do it in our own practice. Next. You see Kirihara playing a rough game against another first year.”

“Well… I believe I have seen you just watch.”

“...”

“I was actually wondering about your thinking on that.”

“Just wanna know what we’re getting when we’ll have him on the team.”

“So you would prioritize to observe and gather intelligence over intervening?”

“Yukimura’s interested in him, so he’ll probably use him. He’s probably told Sanada that too, since he’s spending so much time drilling him.”

Yagyuu hadn’t been drawing such conclusions, but when Niou explained his observations, it did rather make sense. He had been in the team a shorter time than Yagyuu, but already had a good grasp on the others.

“I see.”

Niou continued.

“You’d see how it’d go for a while. If you thought it was too rough, you’d wait until a court change so you could call him out without making a fuss, and tell him to take it easy. 'Cause you’re nice like that.”

“Oh.” Yagyuu couldn’t really recall Niou complementing his personality before – most of the time, he was teasing him or effectively questioning his sincerity – so it felt unexpected. Unexpected, but in a somewhat nice way. It suddenly made him feel a bit embarrassed.

Luckily, Niou had the skill to sometimes let things pass if they were easier to handle that way.

“It’s your turn again.”

They continued talking like that, coming up with various examples. Marui and Jackal asking which of them was right in their fight. Yanagi saying something that showed he’d been backreading your social media channel for way further back than before you had even met. Visiting Yukimura and what to tell him when he asked how Sanada was leading the team in his absence.

To Yagyuu’s slight surprise, they got most of their guesses right. It was a pleasant thing to realize. Even if their friendship didn’t go that far back yet, it seemed like both of them had already created quite a realistic picture of each other’s behaviour.

Still, at some point Yagyuu realized they were still talking mostly about actions instead of thinking – at least when it came to Niou. And wasn’t thoughts and motivations what he had most wanted to learn about?

It was getting late, and their discussion was becoming slower. Coming up with new scenarios was becoming more difficult, too, as they were gradually getting sleepy. Despite that, Yagyuu thought the talk had a good atmosphere, the kind where asking something more personal wouldn’t have been out of place.

When it was his turn again, he thought of the question that had occurred to him earlier in the day at the shrine. While it was bad manners to outright pry someone about what they had asked the gods for, he thought maybe he could bring up something similar.

It took a while for Yagyuu to form the scene. He hoped it wasn’t too forward when he finally said it, quietly in the dark.

“The team visits a shrine before an important match, and everyone is encouraged to write their wish plates.”

There was no immediate response, and Yagyuu waited for a while, assuming Niou was thinking about what to say about Yagyuu’s side first.

When a couple of minutes had passed, he started wondering.

“Niou-kun?”

There was no answer. When he listened more carefully, he realized Niou’s breathing had turned slow and deep. He had fallen asleep.

Yagyuu couldn’t help but laugh soundlessly. He hadn’t noticed at all. So much for the deeper question he had wanted to ask.

It seemed Niou had managed to evade him again. Still, Yagyuu couldn’t exactly fault him for it this time. It had been a long day.

In that moment of calm, Yagyuu felt a somewhat reassured that as they kept going forward, there would be more days and evenings like this, and more chances for him to ask Niou about the things he still wondered about in him.

When he stayed awake for a moment longer, listening to Niou’s soft sleeping breath, he reminded himself that, this, too was still supposedly for tennis.

 


	7. Chapter 7

“-- And that is why you need to start putting serious effort in training your non-dominant side. Is that clear, Akaya?”

“Yeah yeah. Sanada-fukubuchou, you’ve told me like ten times!”

“Because you don’t listen! Your left arm muscles are still smaller than your right! It is about time you stopped wasting time on those petty games of yours. Renji has made a good balancing programme for you. Start making use of it!”

“But I am doing it already!”

“Nah, I’m sure you skipped yesterday. You were asleep when we put you on the bus after arcade.”

“Shut up, Marui-senpai! I wasn’t!”

“Jackal! Stop pampering Marui and Akaya! No Rikkai tennis team member should waste time on such uselessness!”

“Me? How is this now my responsibility?”

It was a typical noisy evening in the Rikkai tennis team’s locker room. Normal practices had resumed after the New Year’s holidays, and everyone seemed to have a lot of energy after the break. The same was true for Yagyuu – after the steps forward he had taken with Niou on their project, he was excited to be working on tennis at the club, as well.

Yagyuu had just come out of the shower and was tucking his undershirt inside his pants when Yanagi, who occupied the locker next to his, addressed their team members.

“Akaya, Genichirou is right. Unless you take the issue seriously, we might need to consider limiting your play time in favour of muscle training.”

”But Yanagi-senpai! Isn’t playing a lot the most important thing?”

“Not without adequately training your body for it. Take Yagyuu for example. He has clearly not neglected this type of training and has exceptional muscle balance.”

“Oh, I never noticed!” Marui chimed in, and when Yagyuu turned to look, it seemed like everyone but Niou was suddenly looking it him. He cleared his throat.

“It is all thanks to Yanagi-kun’s great programme and advise. If one follows it diligently, good results can surely be expected.”

In truth, Yagyuu had been doing a lot more in order to facilitate playing as Niou. Yanagi seemed to be satisfied though, nodding with a subtle smile.

“Indeed. Niou is another good example on this issue.”

As Niou looked at the team over his shoulder from his locker, Kirihara snorted. “That’s probably the first time anyone has ever said ‘Niou-senpai’ and ‘good example’ in the same sentence!”

“Kirihara-kun, that is hardly the way to speak of your upperclassmen.”

Niou ignored Yagyuu’s admonishment, and grinned at Kirihara instead.

“Yeah? Guess what’s my recommended training?”

Kirihara looked suspicious, but seemed like he wanted to know anyway.

“What?”

Niou took a step close to him and patted him on the head with his right, non-dominant hand.

“Start using your lefty when you jerk off.”

“Eww!!” Kirihara swatted Niou’s hand off, and Yagyuu witnessed Sanada’s face starting to turn red. He himself had no time to scold Niou for the crudeness before everyone else started making a scene.

Niou just laughed at it all. Within the noise, Yagyuu found himself wondering if that level of brazenness was something he would learn to imitate.

 

\- -

 

Most of the beginning of the year was less eventful than the end of the previous. Yukimura stayed in the hospital, the team continued practising, and school and cram school went on as usual. Yagyuu tried to fit in as many private practice sessions with Niou as possible.

Around the end of January, they decided to test playing a doubles game properly switched, with their disguises on. By then, they had only tried it a few times against each other, but it wasn’t really enough to get a feel for how it would work in a real situation. They needed to get on the same side of the court.

In order to do that, they decided to take some space. One weekend, they got on a train and headed west towards another city in Kanagawa.

The changing room at the club they went to didn’t have private booths, so they had to be fast about getting their wigs on in the toilets. Without the time or privacy to take it slow and ease into the role, from pulling the wig on to stepping out of the dressing room, the change from Yagyuu to Niou and Niou to Yagyuu was accomplished in only a few minutes.

Yagyuu still got the usual surge of adrenaline at first. Even so, after the few tries before this one, he was already feeling more confident in the situation than before.

After their first time going out switched around New Year, he had continued practicing Niou’s voice and way of speaking. Sometimes he would read Niou’s Line messages out loud in his voice. Having gone through the different scenarios and how they would act had also reassured him that he already had a decent understanding of what Niou would generally do in various situations. Now, it was about building the confidence to say and do those things naturally, forgetting about his own guidelines for proper behaviour.

When they made it to the indoor courts of the small club, a couple of older men were hitting a rally that looked a bit too relaxed for their taste, while a girl few years older than them was focused on practising her serve with a trainer. A couple of others were playing singles, and another pair was on a break, chatting.

Yagyuu cocked his head at a pair of people who looked like a father and son, the boy probably around twenty.

“Wanna ask them?”

Niou nodded. “Certainly, let us do that.”

The pair accepted Niou’s politely delivered suggestion, so he and Yagyuu joined them on their court and started playing.

They had agreed today was not so much about winning, but getting a solid sense of playing doubles in this way.

Playing with his left hand wasn’t that big of a hindrance to Yagyuu anymore. It wasn’t the best, but not a huge bother either. What made him have to focus more was being at the net and looking closely at their opponents. Was there something they were bad at, some problem in their combination, any habits or weaknesses... 

After the first two games, he thought he was on to something. The older guy was a bit slow, and his backhand stroke was weak. As they changed courts, he told Niou to go for that. He responded by reminding him they were just playing a friendly game, but when the next game started, he played a few rallies according to Yagyuu’s suggestion. The opponent faulted, his shot not going over the net.

Until then Yagyuu had thought hitting the finishing shot himself would naturally be the most satisfying. Now, he was starting to see maybe there was something in getting someone else to get the point for him. Intrigued, he crouched lower to give Niou the space to serve.

 

  
\- -

  
  


They did the same thing several times after that first experience, going to a neighboring city to play switched. Doing so lead to rapid development in the ease at which they could play in each other’s roles, and further strengthened their confidence that the trick would work.

Despite some of his earlier misgivings, Yagyuu found himself enjoying playing on the net as Niou. The pace of the game felt faster there, and watching their opponents from a closer range made the matches more intense and heightened his concentration.

Playing switched seemed to benefit their normal play as well. Putting oneself in the other’s position on the court made it easier to anticipate how the other would react to various situations, and that was without doubt making their connection as a doubles pair stronger.

That was not to say things always went perfectly between them. After one of their switched matches in a nearby town, Niou complained Yagyuu was still playing too cautiously as him. Having just thought he was enjoying playing more freely, Niou’s criticism came as a surprise. Niou didn’t take it so well either when Yagyuu returned the sentiment by noting how his version of the laser beam – a name that had recently caught on at practice – was still too slow to pass as Yagyuu’s.

It wasn’t really a fight, as the discussion didn’t last very long. Niou mostly ignored him on their way back, focusing on his phone instead. Yagyuu thought it was bad manners, but couldn’t really pursue the topic while in public transport. When they got back to Fujisawa station, Niou went on his own way, leaving Yagyuu annoyed that they hadn’t properly finished the conversation.

The next day Niou was back to normal at school and practice, so Yagyuu didn’t get a good chance to continue where they left off. He, too, had calmed down after sleeping on it.

That kind of friction had come up from time to time ever since they started playing together. Initially Yagyuu had been more willing to let the situations pass as they occurred, but now that they were cooperating closely on their project, he increasingly felt that such issues should be addressed so that they could continue progressing in shared understanding.

Niou, on the other hand, tended to be more evasive about such situations. Most of the time he seemed to forget about whatever schism they had soon enough, but Yagyuu wondered if that was really the case.

One thing that usually put their occasional disputes on the background was the ongoing situation of their captain. Yagyuu tried to visit relatively often, sometimes together with Yanagi, sometimes by himself. While he wasn’t nearly as close to their captain as Sanada and Yanagi, playing together as part of the team during previous summer’s tournament had made their relationship relatively comfortable.

The visits were usually quite pragmatic, and they often spent the time studying together. To Yukimura, the company was a welcome change from all the self-study he had to do.

One weekend, Niou happened to be busy with something else – with what, he didn’t specify – and Yagyuu was left with free time. As it had been a couple of weeks since the last time he had visited Yukimura, it seemed like a good chance to go again. When he mentioned his plan in the locker room on Friday evening, Jackal asked to go with him, and they made plans to do that the next day. When asked on Line, Yukimura confirmed he would be available.

The following afternoon, Yagyuu and Jackal arrived at Yukimura’s hospital room, both of them bringing a little something with them. Yagyuu brought flowers and a book on French art history, Jackal bag full of instant ramen cups, in case Yukimura got bored with eating hospital food all the time. Yukimura seemed happy about the company and the presents, and smiling, invited them to sit down.

They ended up staying longer than expected. Though Yagyuu and Jackal initially avoided the topic of tennis, thinking it might have been a sensitive topic, at some point the discussion gravitated to the situation of Rikkai’s doubles. Yukimura asked for their honest assessment of how things were developing.

At first, Yagyuu wondered about the purpose of having such a conversation without their partners present. But maybe Yukimura was going something similar to what the detectives in his books did – asking related people separately to check if there was anything that didn’t match.

With Yukimura out of the possible lineups, the main combinations for doubles were rather stable, even though they did still mix things up to keep everyone focused. Marui and Jackal were definitely aiming to get back at him and Niou for the loss they had suffered in the autumn, so Yagyuu was interested to hear what he would say. 

Jackal’s account of his and Marui’s combination sounded similar to what he would have expected. Besides working hard in practice, they often spent time together outside club activities, many times with Kirihara tagging along. He did mention how Marui tended to be a bit selfish in his plays, sometimes letting through shots that were actually his but which he deemed too troublesome. From Jackal’s point of view it wasn’t really a problem, since he could get the shots anyway. He would have been more annoyed if Marui didn’t leave him enough balls to hit.

Yagyuu didn’t voice his opinion, but didn’t really agree with Jackal’s approach to the issue, as much as it seemed to come from confidence in his own skill and from his kindness toward Marui. Surely their play was more likely to be successful if both parties did their reasonable part and could anticipate how the other person would play. 

When it was his turn to describe the situation with Niou, he told them about often playing extra games over the weekend. He mentioned how they occasionally had disagreements when it came to formations and tactics, but how they usually happened off court and were solved similarly, so that during the matches they had an agreement on what they were doing. He did say a bit about getting to know each other personally, but didn’t elaborate on the karaoke visits, sleepovers, meeting each other’s families and everything that had come with the preparation for the switch.

Yukimura listened to their descriptions attentively, and at the end, said he was glad both main doubles pairs seemed to be progressing well. But, he continued, neither of them should be anywhere close to being satisfied.

Yagyuu and Jackal exchanged a look. It was normal for Yukimura to be strict on the team and expect everyone to work hard to go higher, but it sounded like this was not his usual talk.

Yukimura wanted to give them a new goal. During his time in the hospital so far, he had had a lot of time to read. Among others, he had been looking into books by various professional tennis players from all over the world. While Yukimura himself had always been a singles player, a few stories from doubles players had caught his interest. He had learned about a state called “synchro”.

Neither Yagyuu or Jackal had ever heard of this technique before, so Yukimura explained. Drawing a parallel between a condition called the “state of self-actualization” both he and Sanada could reach, this “synchro” was something only the most accomplished doubles pairs could do in a moment of intense pressure. When in that state, their movements, breathing and even thought processes would naturally become aligned, and even without any communication between the partners, they would know exactly what the other would do, allowing them to play together seamlessly and with full power.

As to how to reach this state, clear steps could not be given as it was rare to achieve it altogether, but what at least seemed clear was that it would take a wealth of shared experience, as well as full trust between the partners. 

It might not be easy, Yukimura said while looking at Yagyuu in the eye, but both of the Rikkai doubles pairs should aim to reach that height.

When they left the hospital, Jackal commented on what a huge challenge Yukimura had thrown at them. Yagyuu agreed.

While Yagyuu was still not sure what to think about the whole thing, Jackal seemed interested, as if it was just another new milestone to go for. ‘Well, at least it’s not going to be a problem of trust with me and Bunta’, he said.

Yagyuu was still thinking about the talk in the train on his way home. 

He hadn’t said it out loud to Yukimura or Jackal, but he had to wonder if the whole thing was a bit exaggerated. He and Niou were already putting exceptional effort into understanding each other and their tennis for their switch, but hadn’t experienced anything resembling what Yukimura had just described. Getting into a state where one’s mind would go blank to allow some kind of subconscious connection to take over sounded rather unrealistic.

At the same time, Yagyuu couldn’t fully dismiss what Yukimura had told them. If the state was hard to imagine, maybe it wasn’t a big wonder – after all, they only had a few years of experience of tennis, playing in middle school club and tournaments, not professional circles. The way Yukimura made it sound, it shouldn’t even be within their reach. Still, that was what the captain was asking of them.

Before going on his own way, Jackal had wished Yagyuu luck with Niou. Yukimura, too, had given him a meaningful look in the hospital when he had mentioned Niou.

Were they thinking it would be difficult for them especially? If so, it shouldn’t be about lack of shared experience – he and Niou didn’t have any less of it than Jackal and Marui. Did they think it wasn’t likely he and Niou would succeed with something that called for “trust”? Yagyuu felt a bit offended – what did they know about his and Niou’s partnership?

Well, maybe not much, to be fair. They were keeping a significant part of their interaction a secret.

But even knowing that, Yagyuu didn’t feel very reassured.

He thought about Niou, off doing something Yagyuu didn’t know about.

Aiming for the synchro or not, he thought that maybe sometime soon he should have a talk with Niou about where they were at. As doubles partners, and as two people doing something as strange as the switch.

 

\- -

  
  


Before Yagyuu had had the chance to have a discussion about his thoughts with Niou, the next week Yanagi suggested for the whole team to visit Yukimura together again.

Things tended to get noisy when everyone was together like that, but in contrast to that liveliness, Yukimura seemed more tired than he had been just last week.

By then even Kirihara had realized that Yukimura’s condition was serious – why else would he have been hospitalized for such a long time? Yet the team still hadn’t been told a clear reason for it. Yagyuu wondered if it had to do with uncertainties about the diagnosis and plan for his treatment, or if for some reason it just was not being shared with everyone. Perhaps Sanada and Yanagi already knew.

After they left Yukimura with the cake and snacks they had brought, the team headed for Jackal’s family’s ramen restaurant – finally after months since the original plan had been aborted. It felt a bit questionable to go without Yukimura, but perhaps team building in this form was also needed when the change in the team composition seemed to continue longer than expected.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, the team was met by Jackal’s parents. His father, a tall man with dark skin, spoke Japanese, but seemed happy to exchange some sentences in English when Yagyuu used it to apologize for their lack of knowledge of Portuguese. “Show-off’, he heard Niou whispering to Marui.

The orders were on the house, much to Kirihara and Marui’s excitement, both of them ordering extra noodles and toppings with theirs. Sanada scolded them for presuming on the Jackal family’s kindness, but Jackal himself seemed happy about it. 

After the orders had been taken and everyone got their drinks, Sanada told the team listen to him. Everyone quieted down immediately, hoping to hear something about Yukimura’s situation.

They didn’t get much detail. However, Sanada did announce that Yukimura would be gone for at least a few more months. That meant that all of the time leading up to the nationwide tennis tournament in the summer, they would be practicing without their captain.

Everyone was quiet. Kirihara kept glancing at the others, looking like he wanted to say something. In the end, he couldn’t restrain himself.

“So that means all of us will get to play in the tournament?”

What a tactless thing to say, Yagyuu thought. Was this really the time to be thinking about one’s own position?

Niou’s comment came with a sarcastic laugh. “Wow, our ace can count to eight.”

“Duh, it’s to seven!”

Contrary to Yagyuu’s expectation, Sanada didn’t get angry at their banter, and nodded in all seriousness.

“It means everyone in this table needs to play, and that everyone will be required to win. We will present Yukimura with a record of straight wins when he returns and joins the team again. No exceptions will be allowed. This is for the sake of Rikkai’s third consecutive victory. Is that clear?”

With the exception of Niou, everyone was so loud with their reply of “yes sir” that Yagyuu felt a bit bad for the other customers.


	8. Chapter 8

One thing the switched practice games out of town had taught Niou and Yagyuu was that their current wigs were still not perfect. The material they were made of was more stiff than real hair, and they didn’t move naturally with their actions during playing tennis. It wasn’t much of a problem with Yagyuu’s wig, as Niou’s bleached and messed up hair wasn’t supposed to move quite so much in the first place, but it was something one could pick up if they were looking at Niou’s brown wig.

Niou was not too eager to spend the amount of money that getting a human hair wig required. Somehow Yagyuu felt responsible since the issue was about imitating himself, so he offered to make the purchase. It took quite a big portion of the money he had been saving from his weekly allowances for charity, but with the recent mood of the team he felt they shouldn’t make compromises on things like these.

Yagyuu arranged for the order to be delivered to a nearby post office to avoid his family learning about it. After it arrived, he and Niou agreed to have another one of their karaoke  meetings after practice. By now, Yagyuu had already gotten a membership card.

Niou was drinking a very pink drink in their usual tiny booth while Yagyuu opened the package he had collected from mail.

“I still can’t believe you wanted to spend so much money on this.”

“I do believe we want to do this properly.”

“Yeah, but still. I never spent that much on the previous ones and it was fine.”

“You were found out sometimes, were you not?”

“It’s not just about the wig. And Yukimura might not be there to see it this time," Niou reminded him.

“Well, let us hope that he will be.”

Finally all the layers of plastic were out of the way, and a dark brown wig emerged. Yagyuu held it out for inspection.

“The colour seems right. And as expected, the feel is very different from the one you have used until now.”

“Let me see.”

Niou hummed as he examined the wig closely. Yagyuu tried reading his expression – something he was doing more deliberately lately – but asked anyway.

“What do you think?”

“Seems pretty good.”

Then, Niou put the wig down. He reached out with his fingers, swiping Yagyuu’s cheekbone lightly as he touched his hair. Surprised, Yagyuu flinched slightly, but didn’t pull away. Niou twirled his hair, and Yagyuu realized he was testing the texture.

“Yeah, it feels similar to yours. A lot softer than mine, heh.”

Yagyuu felt relieved when Niou pulled his hand away. He cleared his throat and lifted his glasses.

“Well, perhaps if you stopped bleaching yours…”

Niou laughed it off. “What, like grow it out and start looking like you all the time? We wouldn’t have much of a trick if we looked the same.”

“I was not intending to suggest that.”

“Good, ‘cause I’m not going to.” Niou pulled out a wig cap from his backpack. “I’ll try this on.”

While Niou got started with his task, Yagyuu tried his own drink, included in the booth rent. It was too sweet for him, so he left it for the time being, and settled on watching Niou tuck his hair under the cap.

Thinking how he was probably the only person to see Niou do this, Yagyuu’s thoughts traveled back to his talk with Yukimura and Jackal a while back.

The issue of trust was still on his mind. As much as he had been thinking about it, he hadn’t found full peace of mind about it in relation to the “synchro” Yukimura had brought up and the switch they were preparing.

To start with, he was sure the switch required a lot of trust, too. After all, Niou was not exactly known for his manners, sincerity or good-willedness, and yet here he was, taking on Yagyuu’s appearance and Yagyuu helping him do it. Someone might have described that as risky – Yagyuu was aware of that as he watched Niou pulling the new wig on and combing through the strands with his fingers, looking at his reflection with a small pocket mirror. 

“Yeah, this’ll be good. A bit too long, but once I’ll take that off it should match with you pretty perfectly.”

He did mostly believe he didn’t need to be worried about that, as he was relatively certain they did have a shared understanding of the purpose of the project. And Niou wasn’t what he had seemed at first. Some disagreements aside, they had been getting along well with each other most of the time. They had shared all kinds of things about themselves to each other. And surely all of that was something that would build a foundation for something like the “synchro” as well, if that was what they wanted to aim for, too. It was just that sometimes, Niou would still…

“Yagyuu?”

When he refocused, he could see Yagyuu – Niou – looking at him.

“Oh, excuse me. What is it?”

“I was asking you the same thing," Niou said, sounding like himself without looking like it at all. He had even put on his glasses. “Is it that distracting to look at yourself? I didn’t think you were that into you.”

Somewhat embarrassed by the implication, Yagyuu diverted his gaze reflexively. “You are jumping into conclusions. I apologize, I was thinking about something else.”

“Hmm. That’s not like you.” Niou made a bit of a show trying to peer into his face. “Don’t tell me you’re getting confused by all this.” He made a vague hand gesture at the space that was between them. “You’re supposed to stay you when you’re not me.”

“Please don’t unnecessarily dramatize something so little.” Yagyuu reached for his drink and looked back at Niou. “Anyway, I do think this wig seems a lot better. But we should try it during a match to see how it behaves in movement.”

Niou looked a little suspicious, but allowed him to change the subject.

“Yeah. And we should compare it to yours. Like, maybe you’ll get jealous I have a better one now and want a new one for yourself.”

“Well, even if I did, I would not be able to afford it immediately.”

“We still have a few months before this needs to be ready.”

“Do you think we are well on track to finish all our preparations on time?”

“Well, yeah. We’ve spend a shitload of time on this.”

Sipping at his drink, Yagyuu refrained from commenting about language.

“Let us hope it will pay off.”

“Why wouldn’t it? No one’s ever seen anything like this.”

“Well, that is surely true. I doubt anyone but you would come up with something like this.”

“Too bad we won’t have much time to be looking at our bench. Maybe you can recruit some first year to record it? It could be even more fun than the seeing the opponents’ faces.”

“Let’s not diverge from the purpose, Niou-kun. The point is to win a match.”

“So pragmatic.” He said it like it was a bad thing, but grinned on top of it, picking up his own drink and looking at Yagyuu over his glasses. “You should prepare to enjoy it, though. The opponents will be shocked at the whole thing, but the team will be a lot more surprised at you than me.”

“But you haven't used these pranks of yours on court yet, either.”

“Oh, I haven't?”

Yagyuu felt of ping of annoyance. This again. He very much disliked this habit, Niou implying that he was wrong but not saying clearly what was true.

Shouldn’t they have been talking more honestly by now?

“Well, have you?" he asked, his tone perhaps a bit more blunt than usual.

Niou changed his expression to something Yagyuu might wear, and spoke in his voice.

“Aren't you being awfully direct today.”

“It is up to me to decide how I want to be. You, on the other hand, are evasive as usual, and it's hardly good manners.”

Niou dropped the expression, and leaned back on the sofa, casually crossing his legs. Back and shoulders slumped in his own usual way, his version of Yagyuu looked weird now.

“Sounds like someone is having a bad day. What, did you get 95 from a test or something?”

“My marks are as usual. You didn't answer my question.”

“What question?”

“Whether you have used this kind of trick in tennis before or not.”

“Why do you need to know?”

Niou’s reluctance to answer was trying Yagyuu’s patience. Maybe that was also what Yukimura and Jackal had been hinting at, when they had mentioned “trust”?

“Rather than me needing to know, isn't it normal to share things like that with your doubles partner?”

As he said the last words out loud, Yagyuu noticed it felt a little weird. Then he realised, why: it was the first time for him to actually call them that. Until then, they hadn't really talked about themselves as, well, anything. It was always just about what they were doing, not what they were.

There was perhaps a chance that this wasn’t the best moment to start using those words. But Yagyuu felt it was a defensible, and it supported his point. Still, he could already see from Niou’s face that he wasn’t very moved by it, at least in the positive way. When his mouth turned into a scornful grin, Yagyuu noticed Niou had not completed his look: the mole on his chin was still visible.

“What, like you knowing stuff like that will make us play better tennis? Okay. No, I haven’t done what we’re going to do before. Have I played as someone else before? Yeah. There.”

Niou was clearly getting annoyed now, and Yagyuu didn’t exactly like his tone or the way he acted as if Yagyuu was saying or asking for something very unreasonable.

That was also the first time he heard about Niou using the dress-up for tennis, not just for his usual pranks. He thought he should have had the right to know before.

“Well, I wish it hadn’t been that difficult for you to share. Maybe I shouldn’t ask any more.”

“You sure? Should I tell you who it was? Maybe if you heard it was Marui your volleys will be better in the next game. Because, who knows why, but anyway.”

Yagyuu frowned. One of his volleys had hit the net earlier that week, and landed on their side of the court. Niou had thrown a casual “don’t mind” at him for it then, but now he was just being plain rude to him about it.

“Don’t treat me like an idiot. I was not saying that.”

“Then why are you on my case? What, did Yukimura have his talk with you too? About this doubles pairs becoming one or something?”

Surprised to hear that coming up from Niou, Yagyuu didn’t have an answer ready. Niou picked it up.

“He did, didn’t he.” Niou’s laugh had a sting to it, and with him looking like Yagyuu, the impression was somehow cold.

Yagyuu frowned. He felt a bit stupid for not considering Yukimura might have had the same talk with Niou already. But Niou could have told him that. He hadn’t even mentioned visiting Yukimura, so was it Yagyuu’s fault if he didn’t know?

“Well, yes, he did. I was not aware you had discussed that with him, too.”

“Not much of a discussion, but his monologue.”

“And what did you think of it, then?”

Niou looked at him through the glasses, not really showing much on his face. Him being in disguise didn’t make it any easier to read. He did sound dismissive to Yagyuu when he spoke.

“Sounded pretty magical to me.”

Magical translated to unrealistic in Yagyuu’s mind, and despite having thought something along the same lines, he was not inclined to just meekly agree.

“So you suppose what Yukimura-kun was saying was not relevant for us?”

“He’s not a doubles player. Just because he read a few books by some sentimental old guys, what does he know?”

“There is some merit to learning from the more experienced.”

“If you’re into following and repeating something that’s already been done.”

“No one is forcing you to just blindly repeat anything.”

“Yeah? I guess that should be the same for you, then.”

“What are you implying?”

“I mean, why are you coming up with this cheesy ‘oh, us partners should share things’ stuff now and getting all angry at me? Just because Yukimura tells you something you start thinking we need to change the way we are?”

“That’s not true," Yagyuu argued. “Besides, haven’t I been trying to learn more about you all the while we have been doing  _ this _ ?” Unintedly, he used same gesture to the space between them as Niou had before.

Niou’s expression showed something like distaste.

“But that was different. Uh, this is shitty, let’s just drop it.”

Looking like he was done, Niou proceed to drain the rest of his drink in one go. Yagyuu looked on with dissatisfaction – he didn’t think they were finished with the conversation yet.

“What is so ‘shitty’ about discussing how to be a better doubles pair?”

“Pair, huh. Wasn’t this supposed to be just about winning for you? But okay. Thanks for the nice talk, I’m sure we’ll do better together from now on," Niou said with sarcasm. The glass clinked loudly when he set it on the table, empty.

Frowning at the forcefulness Niou was starting to show, Yagyuu set aside his own, mostly full glass, then returning his gaze to Niou.

“I don’t appreciate the attitude you are giving me here, Niou-kun.”

“Oh dear.” His voice was scornful when he plucked out his glasses.

“I am being serious and I would like you to be, too.”

“No you’re not. You’re getting caught up in something that someone else said and that doesn’t have anything to do with us.” He pulled off his wig and the wig cap along with it, finally looking like himself again, save for his hair being matted down instead of pointing in all possible directions. “But whatever. I’m leaving now.”

“I don’t think we are done here, yet.”

Niou shoved the wig to his backpack. “I think we are.”


	9. Chapter 9

Niou had gotten out of the karaoke joint before him, and Yagyuu didn’t see him anymore when he made it out to the street and went to the station that both of them would have used when going home. He tried looking around, but found only people he didn’t know.

Yagyuu was angry. As far as he was concerned, the discussion had not been finished, so cutting it off in the middle of everything was quite aggravating. Walking out on him like that was really poor manners from Niou.

Yagyuu hardly got into fights. Actually, he never got into fights. Even so, he was fairly sure that the appropriate thing in situations like these was to discuss until the parties could come to some common understanding, someone said they were sorry and the disagreement was solved.

In this case, Niou should have listened to him more. Unlike Niou had claimed, Yagyuu had definitely not brought up any of that discussion just now only because of what Yukimura had said. For a long time, he had been thinking that Niou should be more open about himself, and had tried to ask him about things, but Niou had been difficult about it. Maybe the talk with the captain had made him more inclined to press Niou about that, but that was beside the point.

Yagyuu also never expected Niou to be so rude to him. Sure, he was inconsiderate at times, like picking meat from Yagyuu’s plate during lunch, using his towels and water bottles in practice without asking for permission, calling him a nerd and making fun of his poems, but this was the first time it felt like he had been saying something mean on purpose to make Yagyuu seem stupid. Wasn’t that unacceptable if you were supposed to be friends?

Yagyuu would have liked to tell Niou that straight away, but how could he, when Niou had run away like that?

He was so preoccupied with his thoughts he accidentally bumped shoulders with another passenger when stepping onto the train. Apologizing promptly, he felt stupid and annoyed about everything.

Standing on the aisle of the train and looking at the darkening sea over the passengers seated by the window, he considered his options. Should he send Niou a message, or even call him? They did that sometimes to organize their meetings, but he highly doubted Niou would answer him, having already made it quite clear he didn’t want to talk things through just now. Maybe he wouldn’t answer to a message either, but at least Yagyuu would be able to tell him what he thought.

He could also wait to talk to him in school. But wouldn’t it be rather difficult with so many people around? Yagyuu would much rather talk in private. He had a few privileges when it came to using school facilities due to being in the student council, but the thought of using the spaces in school for his personal matter didn’t seem appropriate.

On the other hand, maybe it wasn’t only a private issue. They would still have to practice tennis together. That would be awkward if they were fighting.

If only Niou had been more cooperative and reasonable, this wouldn’t have happened.

Besides, why had Niou even gotten all worked up like that suddenly? Surely Yagyuu hadn’t said anything that would justify getting all sarcastic like that.

Yes, maybe he had been a bit more direct than before. But Niou himself was a lot more direct with his comments to Yagyuu all the time! He had told him he was not really nice and called him a “stick-up-the-ass” and whatnot. If one of them had had reason to get angry several times already, wasn’t it him, not Niou?

On the way home, Yagyuu convinced himself it was Niou who was in the wrong, and that he should make him realize that, and then Niou could apologize. He deserved that from him.

Pushing the issue aside when he got home, he had dinner with the whole family, his father being home earlier than usual. No one seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary was going on, and he didn’t feel like bringing it up. Even if he was annoyed with Niou, he didn’t want his family hearing about it – they had been accepting about him recently, and Yagyuu didn’t want to compromise that despite how annoyed he was.

After dinner, he did his homework, and when it was his turn, took a bath. Soaking quietly in warm water calmed him down a bit, and his mood slightly changed. What if Niou would not admit to being wrong? What would happen then? The thought made him a bit worried.

When he sat on this bed afterwards, wearing a bathrobe and a towel around his neck, he checked his phone. There was nothing from Niou.

Should he send a message, after all?

Careful not to send anything unfinished accidentally, he opened a note app and began typing.

_‘Niou-kun, good evening. I regret that you left so urgently today that we couldn’t finish our conversation. I feel we should try to solve this issue properly, and hence I am continuing in writing.’_

It was more difficult to put in text than he expected. He checked Line again just in case, but there was nothing new.

What did he want to say?

The last thing Niou had said to him was that Yagyuu was focusing on something that wasn’t relevant for them. That wasn’t true. Even without Yukimura’s story about the “synchro” and the trust apparently needed to make that happen, he believed they needed to build good understanding of each other in order to be able to do the switch well. And many times, getting Niou to talk about himself had been difficult, and that had been frustrating before, well before any of this stuff with Yukimura.

Then, how to put that into words.

He started once, then deleted, and tried again.

After several tries, he gave up. Maybe it really was an issue that should be discussed face to face, not in a chat.

_‘Niou-kun, good evening. I regret that you left so urgently today that we couldn’t finish our conversation. I feel we should try to solve this issue properly. Can we talk in the morning before practice? If I may suggest meeting 45 minutes before practice at the station.”_

He copied the text to Line, and pressed send. It was already late, but Niou tended to stay up longer than he should have, so he would most likely see it soon.

With no homework left to do, he opted to review English vocabulary while he waited for Niou to answer to his suggestion.

After a while, there was a beep, and he immediately picked up his phone.

It was not Niou. It was Akaya asking if anyone would come see this new action movie in the cinema next weekend with him.

Disappointed, Yagyuu typed an answer saying he would be busy – weekend was time for extra practice – put the phone down again, and continued his vocabulary review.

In a moment, there was another message. This time it was Sanada, saying Akaya was too young for the movie in question and forbidding him from going.

When the phone beeped for the third time, it was from Niou. Yagyuu felt a surge of anticipation.

The message was not for him, but for the team chat.

_‘sanada is only ok with violence if the movie is like 1000 years old and so boring you can barely watch it’_  
_‘or if it's himself, but hey’  
‘i'll go to movies with you akaya’_

 

_\- -_

 

Yagyuu didn’t fall asleep very quickly that night, but without sympathy the alarm came off and woke him up earlier than usual.

The only thing he had got from Niou was an automatic timestamp in Line, showing him Niou had finally read his message a bit after two in the morning. Despite that, there was no answer.

At that moment, Yagyuu was feeling more ill-humored than worried. A part of him had suspected Niou might not answer, but he still expected more of him.

Niou was even still using the profile picture that was actually Yagyuu. How was it okay to use someone’s face like that but ignore them when they wanted to speak with you?

When his mother was surprised about how early he was leaving, Yagyuu made an excuse of helping a classmate with an upcoming test before tennis practice, and got on his way three quarter hours earlier than usual. Even if Niou hadn’t answered him about coming to meet him, he figured he should be there according to his suggestion. Niou might still show up without letting him know.

The train was less packed that early, so he got a seat this time. When he glanced over his shoulder to take a look at the view, the sea was really bright, almost white as it reflected the morning sun.

Yagyuu was at the station a few minutes before the time he had suggested. Standing there and getting mentally ready to see Niou soon, he suddenly felt nervous. Even if talking face to face was preferred to chatting, it was not as if he had any experience of situations like these. How should he begin the conversation? Should he thank Niou for coming? He guessed so – it was Niou’s fault that they hadn’t been able to go through the thing immediately yesterday, but it was an unusually early morning for Niou, so it would be sign of good will if he came.

Niou was not there at the suggested time. Well, that was still to be expected. What should he say next? He supposed he could suggest for them to go to a cafe. If any schoolmates happened to see them, they could just say they were having a strategy meeting before tennis practice.

Then, Yagyuu would explain about how Niou was wrong about the motivation Yagyuu had for asking more about him. And maybe he would ask Niou why he was often so reluctant about talking about himself. And tell Niou it wasn’t nice to behave the way he had behaved yesterday towards a friend.

When he looked at the time next, it was already 10 minutes after the suggested time.

Still nothing on Line.

There was no Niou and no messages five minutes later, either. Nor 10 minutes from there. Nor 15 minutes from there.

It was getting to the point where he needed to head to practice. Annoyed again, he set towards school. If Niou wasn’t going to meet him at the station, maybe they could at least exchange a few quick words discreetly before practice began.

That plan didn't work out either, as Niou didn't show up. When the morning practice was 15 minutes in and the team members were focused on doing their warm up each in their own pace, Sanada approached him.

“Yagyuu. Where’s Niou? He should be here by now.”

It seemed like the vice-captain had given Niou the benefit of the doubt, but had now decided Niou was not coming and assumed Yagyuu would know why. He decided to go with a selective account of the situation.

“Ah, Sanada-kun. I’m afraid I do not know about his whereabouts either. He hasn’t mentioned any reason for being absent today.”

“So he’s just skipping? Unacceptable. When you see him, tell him he can expect to be punished.”

Hearing that would hardly make Niou more enthusiastic to come to practice in the afternoon, but rather than arguing, Yagyuu slightly bowed to Sanada. As he did that, he remembered the exchange about movies on the team chat last night.

“Understood. Shall I have a talk with him about Kirihara-kun and restricted movies as well?”

Sanada tucked his cap lower and made a small nod.

“Yeah. But now, get back to work.”

“Yes, sir.”

 

\- -

 

The morning practice had focused mainly on serve and volley technique, so not having his partner around hadn’t been that big of a problem. Still, Yagyuu was already used to practicing with Niou at least somewhere close by, so not having him around felt slightly strange.

After practice was over, Yagyuu decided to honor the promise he had made to Sanada, even though it was awkward to send a new message when Niou had still not replied to his previous. He considered mentioning how it hadn’t been nice of him not show up in the morning, but maybe Niou would just think he was stupid to wait for him when Niou hadn’t even promised to meet him.

_‘Niou-kun, Sanada-kun was unhappy that you skipped practice and wants to let you know there will be consequences.’_

He wanted to say something more about their own issue, but decided against it, and sent the message he had written, then heading to his classroom for the first period.

Unexpectedly, when he checked his phone on the first break, Niou had answered. By the time stamp, it looked like he had sent it during the class, if he was in school in the first place.

_‘so i shouldn’t come in the afternoon either’_

So, now he was answering again. Glancing around to make sure any of his classmates weren’t paying attention to him, he typed an answer.

_‘I am not convinced avoiding it will solve anything.’_

Niou answered after a moment.

_‘he’ll be pissed about something else by tomorrow.’_

The break was over before Yagyuu had been able to form his answer.

 

\- -

 

As Niou had indicated, he didn’t come to practice in the afternoon either. Sanada asked the team if anyone had heard from him, but no one said anything. As Niou’s messages hadn’t really provided any information about where he was, Yagyuu stayed quiet as well.

The topic came up soon enough again, this time from Yanagi. He and Yagyuu had partnered up for competitive interval running, and were just slowing down to easy jogging pace after the first spurt around the tennis courts.

“I have to admit I didn’t expect you to withhold information about Niou as you did just now.”

Yanagi was looking at him him from the side of his eye when Yagyuu glanced at him. Did he know about the fight?

“Excuse me?” Yagyuu asked, out of breath from running.

“I found out he is at school today.”

“Oh, you did? I have not seen him today, so actually I did not know he was here.”

“Hm. Is that so?”

“Yes. But I’m glad to hear that. I wondered if he was perhaps ill.” He decided to take another risk on top of the lie, thinking it would sound even more natural if he asked. “Did he mention the reason for his absence from practice?”

“We didn’t talk," Yanagi answered. “Excuse me for my false assumption.”

“No, I suppose it is reasonable to expect I might know.” He and Niou did usually spend time together in school. And maybe someone else would know when it came to their doubles partner. Perhaps that was all Yanagi was referring to. Reassured that the other boy probably hadn’t picked up anything about the situation between him and Niou, there was another thing Yagyuu himself was now curious about.

“May I ask why you, Yanagi-kun, didn’t mention Niou-kun’s presence at school, then?”

Yanagi didn’t hesitate to answer directly. “I was interested to find out how you would act. It would be useful to know whether you are willing to cover for him.”

“Oh dear.” Slightly uncomfortable to find himself object of such observation, Yagyuu fixed his glasses and hoped Yanagi was mainly pointing to Niou’s practical jokes. “I’m afraid I don’t often know enough of his plans to participate in such a way. He knows I am not so fond of them. But I would suggest us to believe Niou-kun has a good reason for being absent today, and that he will join us again tomorrow.”

“Sure. Well, I might not say this about the others, but whether he misses a day or two, I don’t think we necessarily need to worry when it comes to Niou. Genichirou may disagree, but I believe taking time to work out things on his own every once in a while might prove fruitful.”

Niou, working alone more? What was Yanagi’s intention for saying that? Yagyuu tried reading his face discreetly as they jogged side-by-side, but couldn’t decipher anything from his expression.

Not exactly sure what he thought about the suggestion, he agreed mainly for agreeing’s sake.

“Perhaps you are right.”

Nodding, Yanagi proceeded to check his writchwatch.

“It is time to speed up again," he said, and got to a start before Yagyuu.

 

\- -

 

After practice, Yagyuu went to cram school. He often arrived very close to the starting time, coming straight from the tennis club, and therefore hadn’t really made friends there that went beyond the level of exchanging greetings. This time he was a bit early, and while waiting for the lesson to begin, he had the chance to listen to the others around him speak.

The tests around the end of the school year were approaching, so naturally that was something that occupied the minds of many of the fellow students.

Listening to them, Yagyuu realized he hadn’t really worried about school recently. Had he been that distracted by other things, even before the current situation with Niou? He did think he was still putting in the usual effort though, and his grades and test results hadn’t changed from usual. Maybe he had just been too busy to have time for unnecessary fretting.

But like Yagyuu was reminded by the others’ discussion, as well as the teacher’s opening remarks when the lesson started, it was a time when one should be focusing on studying and tests, not the time to be spending energy on fighting with one’s doubles partner.

Even though he knew that, thoughts about the situation came up a few times during the lesson. He tried to be diligent about pushing them aside, deciding he could send Niou another message later on to try and move things forward again. They really should solve their disagreement quickly.

The evening was dark by the time he got into a train to take him home, but there were still a lot of people on the move, returning from work and other responsibilities.

As he typed his message, Yagyuu wondered if Niou would answer this one – he had ignored the previous message, but had answered about Sanada. That, too, was rather annoying, but he tried keeping his tone polite.

_‘Niou-kun, I would like to repeat my request from yesterday to talk in the morning. Please let me know if that suits you.’_

Not expecting a quick answer, he put his phone away. As he did that and looked up, something caught his eye. A girl, standing nearby, had been looking at him. She averted her eyes immediately, turning her gaze to her phone instead. ‘Oh’, Yagyuu thought.

 

\- -

 

Niou replied a bit later, when Yagyuu was already home.

_‘it’s way too early’_

Well, at least it was an answer.

_‘Would you like to suggest something else, in that case?’_

_‘nah. see you at practice’_

See you at practice?

That was an unsatisfactory answer. First of all, Yagyuu had specifically suggested talking, but obviously they couldn’t do that at practice. So Niou was still avoiding the discussion. Second, if Niou didn’t want to talk, Yagyuu assumed he was still mad at him - but then why did he sound so casual now, as if it would be just any other day at practice?

Maybe Yagyuu was reading the tone of his messages wrong. Had Niou written the messages of today in the same cynical tone he had spoken with at the karaoke place?

He thought that might be the case. But reading the messages over and over, he couldn’t be sure.

One thing was becoming clear, though. No matter how much more familiar he and Niou had become during the last year or so, this was a situation where Yagyuu seemed to have no idea what he could expect from him. There had been no scenario for “you get into a fight with your closest friend” when they had tested their knowledge of each other that one time in the dark in Yagyuu’s room.

He still assumed at least the “friend” part held true, though he wasn’t sure about the “close”.

 

\- -

 

As Niou had promised, he showed up in the morning practice. Yagyuu was already changed and out of the clubroom when he saw him going in, and didn’t have the chance to say anything. Along with many other club members, he was made busy to help the first years sort out a number of nets that had been all tangled up. Sanada was really letting them hear about it – the youngest members of the club had been responsible for clearing out the nets yesterday, and the mess they had made of them was, according to the vice-captain, “a shameful show of disrespect to the Rikkai tennis club and everything they stood for”.

They were close to finished with the task when Niou emerged from the clubroom, making his way to Yagyuu with his usual slouch and hands in his pockets.

It was the first time to see him after the fight. Yagyuu felt he was seeing him with new eyes, but had anyone asked, there was nothing he could have pointed out that was different from usual.

Niou nodded to him. Yagyuu nodded back.

“Good morning, Niou-kun.”

“Morning.”

With the others around, there wasn’t anything Yagyuu could say that had to do with their situation. But he didn’t want the others noticing them not talking at all, either.

“I’m glad you joined us again today.”

Niou seemed to study his face a bit for that, before turning his gaze to look at the nets being set up, rubbing his neck.

“But it sure seems busy here today.”

As Yagyuu followed Niou’s line of sight, he saw Sanada still lecturing the first years, who were by now looking rather defeated.

Recalling the message from yesterday, Niou had said Sanada would be angry at something else today.

Before he had the chance to confirm his suspicion, he saw Yanagi approaching them, signaling for the regulars to gather to him.

“Good morning, everyone," he started when Jackal, Marui and Kirihara had joined them on the edge of the courts. “As Genichirou will want to focus his attention to the first years today, I will be responsible for leading our training today.”

“Yay!” Kirihara cheered. “Will you let us play matches?”

“Well, how about we ask Niou for his suggestion.” Yanagi turned his face towards him, not really looking him straight in the eyes. “Did any good ideas come up while you skipped practice yesterday?”

Niou shrugged. “I have full trust in whatever our strategist chooses.”

Yagyuu suppressed an urge to raise an eyebrow at the comment. Yanagi himself just nodded.

“I’m glad to hear that. As it happens, trust is an important part of successful teamwork. Now that Niou has brought it up, let us do something a bit different today and try some trust exercises.”

Of all the things they could have been doing… While Yagyuu didn't protest, Kirihara whined without hesitation.

“Aww, man… Can’t we just play tennis?”

“This is training for tennis," Yanagi told them, and with Jackal’s support, got everyone ready to give it a go.

They started with a simple type of exercise that allowed everyone to participate at once. One person would step up on a bench, and start falling down back-first, to be caught by the team.

They started with Kirihara, who was actually getting fidgety.

“Senpai, are you really going to catch me? This isn't some joke where you let me fall and then laugh at me for being an idiot?”

Standing closest to Kirihara, Marui seemed to be already having fun.

“You'll find out soon enough, right?”

“Of course we’ll catch you. Come on Bunta, don't scare him like that.”

Yanagi nodded.

“It seems like this exercise is very much needed. Are you all ready? Now, Akaya, please turn around and fall.”

 

\- -

 

By the end of morning practice, Yanagi had made them go through a few different kinds of exercises.

Everyone had fallen into the others’ arms, Kirihara even a few times because he had found it fun after the initial scare. Then, they had paired up in twos and took turns blindfolding one of them, while the other guided that person through the club rounds using only their voice. While Niou and Yagyuu got through theirs without incident, Jackal had tripped when Marui had suddenly gotten sidetracked checking out a match a few third-years had gotten into. He  defended himself by insisting it was so rare to see Mouri around these days that anyone would have gotten interested to see that.

After some more similar exercises, Yanagi told them they would close the training by doing eye contact practice. According to him, it would also benefit their non-verbal communication skills, especially for doubles matches. Everyone would pair up, look each other straight in the eye for a minute, and then keep switching until all of them had done the exercise once with everyone.

Yagyuu started with Yanagi himself. The task was surprisingly intense. The other boy did not usually look at people in the eye that directly, and knowing how he liked to observe, theorize and attempt to forecast others’ behaviour all the way down to their choice of words, looking into his eyes for such a long time was more demanding than expected.

Meanwhile, Kirihara and Marui cracked up and giggled their way through the exercise. Jackal and Niou seemed to have had no trouble, if the fist bump they exchanged afterwards was anything to go by.

On the next round, Marui calmed down when he did the exercise with Yagyuu and was able to do it properly. Various small thoughts came up during the practice – including the realization about how they had hardly ever talked or done anything together by the two of them, even though Marui came up quite often as a topic when Yagyuu talked about the club with Niou.

During the exercise with Kirihara, Yagyuu even got into a bit of a reverie about how it was rather impressive how the first year was practising every day with such a clear drive together with the older members of the team. Looking into his eyes, he was also reminded of how terrified the boy had looked when Yukimura had first been taken to the hospital. Kirihara still mentioned the captain a lot, saying things like ‘when Yukimura-buchou returns, he’ll be so impressed with my new serve’ or ‘what kind of a party should we organize for Yukimura-buchou when he comes back?’. It was quite nice of him to think of such things, and it showed how attached he was to the team, despite being the latest one to join it.

Doing the exercise with Jackal was a case of mixed feelings for Yagyuu. The look he was getting from him in itself was nice, uncomplicated look from a teammate who was playing no games. At the same time, Yagyuu was reminded of their recent visit to Yukimura, and how things had went from there. He and Jackal hadn’t talked about it since then, and Yagyuu hadn’t noticed any change in his and Marui’s circumstances. Unexpectedly, he found himself a little jealous of that.

Eventually that minute was over, too, and it was time for the last rotation.

Having avoided pairing up with him until now, Yagyuu half expected Niou to disappear on some excuse, but he didn’t. As Yanagi told everyone to pair up for the last time, Niou came to him without any notable reluctance, stopping to stand in front of him.

Now, Yagyuu felt slightly nervous about doing the exercise with him.

“Is everyone ready?” asked Yanagi.

“Yeah," Niou answered for them, and locked eyes with Yagyuu.

“Alright. The last minute starts now.”

A minute. Normally, it wouldn’t be difficult.

He and Niou already looked each other in the eye often enough. In practice, on lunch, when talking about various things... Often not for very long, as usually Niou would look aside eventually, but still long enough to establish a mood that they were having a proper connection. And unlike with the other teammates, some of his eye contact with Niou was at a close range – closer than this – and in quiet, too. That kind of thing had started coming up with the preparation for the switch, as they had tried on the wigs and practiced their makeup, checked each other to pick up any flaws they needed to fix, or when they had just simply looked at each other wordlessly to take the impression in. Doing that had always been something of an intense moment.

The difference in those cases was that he had been looking at Niou as Yagyuu. This time, it wasn’t for the switch. It was just themselves.

Not dimmed by glasses, Niou’s eyes were light in the morning sun, pupils constricted due to the brightness. His eyes shifted in tiny movements between left and right as his focus naturally moved, but he didn’t break the eye contact.

He wasn’t smiling or grinning, nor was there any other easily readable expression on his face. To Yagyuu, it looked like something more serious and focused than neutral.

It was frustrating. His face wasn’t closed off, but Yagyuu felt he didn’t know how to read it.

He really wanted to speak with him. He wanted to know what he was thinking.

When Yanagi’s timer came off, Niou looked away. Yagyuu took a breath a bit deeper than usual.

“Alright everyone, that is it for now. How was it, any insights from anyone?”

Kirihara was the first with something to say. “It’s good we did it without Yukimura-buchou and Sanada-fukubuchou. That would have been too scary!”

“No, I think it will be rather important to do this kind of thing with them, as well. Any others?”

“I thought it was good to do," Jackal said. “Even if tennis not really a team sport, it’s good to build good team spirit.”

“I agree," Marui quipped in. “And at least doubles is a team thing, right?”

“Yeah. We need to really be on the same page for it," Jackal agreed.

Yanagi nodded. “That is correct. I would encourage those of you who aim to succeed in doubles play do this kind of exercises on your own time. Unfortunately we will not have many chances to prioritise practice like this over physical training, but please think about adding it to your own training menus.”

Yagyuu glanced at Niou, but he was just looking at Yanagi and the others. Figuring they should say something too, he put on a polite smile and nodded.

“Understood. Thank you for introducing all these new type of exercises to us today, Yanagi-kun.”

“You’re welcome. Now, as we didn’t have time for other kind of practice this morning, I will talk to Genichirou about compensating this by changing the afternoon’s technique practise to circuit training. I will inform of any changes on Line. Then, dismissed.”

“Yes sir!”

As Yanagi headed over to where Sanada was still drilling the first years and everyone else started to go to the clubroom, Yagyuu decided to take action on what he had thought during the last exercise.

Niou was about to go together with the others when Yagyuu approached him.

“Niou-kun, a word, please.”

He turned to look, and after a short consideration, stayed back.

“Yeah.”

Thankfully, no one seemed to think anything of it, and went on without commenting. Marui waved his hand at them.

“Catch you later, guys!”

“Thanks for good work. See you on lunch or afternoon practice.”

They were left alone – well, as alone as you could be in the club grounds, with the younger players still practising nearby and other second years going past them as the practice was ending.

Yagyuu decided to be direct and to the point so they could keep it short.

“I know now is not the right time, but I wanted to ask again if we could talk sometime soon.”

Niou didn’t look very excited, but he didn’t run away, either.

“Yeah, maybe. And we should set our next practice time.”

Oh. That was a better response Yagyuu had expected. A bit relieved, a small smile came up.

“I agree. In that case, when do you think would be good?”

“Not this week, since I have something else. Next week, I guess.”

Next week sounded rather far and vague to Yagyuu.

“May I suggest Monday, then?”

“Maybe. I’ll check and let you know. Ok?”

“Well, alright. Thank you, Niou-kun.”

“Yeah.” He shoved his hands to his pockets, and turned towards the clubhouse. “That’s it, right?”

Yagyuu nodded, and followed him. “For now, I suppose.”

At least they were going somewhere now.

 


	10. Chapter 10

As far as appearances went, the rest of the week was close to normal. After getting a promise from Niou that they would meet and talk sometime soon, Yagyuu could relax a bit even though the fight still lingered in the air, unresolved. At least he didn’t need to keep trying to get a hold of Niou anymore.

Niou came to all following practices normally that week, and they trained together as usual. Occasionally some detail reminded Yagyuu of the things Niou had said to him during that talk in the karaoke booth, and it made him uneasy, but he wanted to be professional during club time and made effort to behave as usual.

Niou, for his part, seemed to be doing the same. His behaviour was casual enough, but sometimes Yagyuu felt there was something off. Maybe he was being more distant than before, or talking to people other than him more often.

It did cross Yagyuu’s mind that he himself might have just been paying more attention now, but he didn’t think it was only on him.

During lunch breaks, they ate with some or all of the team members, but not by the two of them. That was probably for the better. It would be awkward to try to talk casually before they had had the real talk they needed to have.

Niou didn’t elaborate on what plans he had for this week that were keeping him so busy, but he left afternoon practises as soon as they ended, not even showering and changing his clothes on all days. Yagyuu wanted to ask, but didn’t think he could press him, the situation being what it was.

Eventually, the weekend came. Yagyuu had decided to take the chance to study properly for upcoming end-of-school-year exams, and as his sister had the same thought, they set up a shared study session between siblings. Their mother was happy to see them working together, and brought snacks into Yagyuu’s room, where they had made their studying spot.

There was no further message from Niou, even though he had promised to inform Yagyuu about when to meet next week.

Yagyuu wondered what exactly Niou was doing over the weekend. He thought it was safe to assume it was not the same as him, but found himself without many informed guesses. The pastimes Niou had mentioned beyond tennis, like darts or diecutting, weren’t usually the type to really keep one that busy.

Still, Yagyuu thought he should allow Niou the space to inform him of his schedule as he had promised, and didn’t approach him about it proactively.

When Monday came, he was again prepared to talk with Niou on that day – that’s what Yagyuu had suggested, and when Niou had said “maybe”, he assumed that in the absence of a “no” the answer was “yes”.

That turned out to be another false assumption from him.

“Today’s not good," Niou said simply when Yagyuu finally asked him about it after the morning practice, on their way from tennis club grounds to their respective classrooms.

“Oh.” Unpleasantly surprised and feeling like he deserved an apology or explanation for what to him seemed like a cancellation, Yagyuu couldn’t help asking. “May I know why?”

“Dad got tickets to watch some baseball, so I’m going with him.”

Baseball?

Yagyuu felt his chest tightening. Was that really more urgent? It was around a week since their fight, and they still hadn’t worked it out, and now Niou had time go watch baseball.

If it wasn’t for his father being involved, Yagyuu might have said some of those thoughts out loud. But out of respect for him, he needed to maintain restraint, even though he was feeling increasingly disappointed about yet another evasion from Niou.

“Is that so. Please give your father my greetings, in that case.”

“Yeah. It should be fun, it’s been ages since the last time.”

“I see.”

He sounded so carefree about it. And he seemed to have no idea what Yagyuu was thinking. Either that, or he didn’t care.

“I’d rather go watch tennis, but oh well. At least he’ll buy me some hot dogs.”

“Well, I hope you will enjoy your time there.”

It didn’t sound genuine even to himself, but he couldn’t help it.

He was getting tired of being stood up by Niou. If he didn’t want to prioritize solving their issues, then so be it, he thought. It wasn’t something he could work out on his own, and if Niou didn’t want to participate, then there was nothing he could do.

By the time they came to the shoe lockers, Yagyuu had worked himself up enough to become determined not to waste any more time waiting for Niou to cooperate. He would also make no more suggestions until Niou made some effort on the issue. If he continued like this, he would just make himself look like an idiot, and that was not something he was going to do anymore.

“So, about this week...”

“Yes, it seems like you are busy.” Having changed his shoes and shut the locker, he gave Niou a small bow, keeping his tone cool. “That is fine, we can see about it later when a good time arises. Have a nice day, Niou-kun, and see you in afternoon practice.”

He didn’t see Niou looking after him as he walked away.

 

\- -

 

From there on, Yagyuu was angry for several days.

As he kept going over the things that had happened, he was starting to doubt whether Niou was committed to their doubles play or the switch idea in general anymore. If he was really serious about their partnership, would he be avoiding having an important discussion with him like this? Sure, he probably hadn’t gone through all that effort to practise the switch just to put it to waste, but it wasn’t like it was Niou’s only option. After all, he had other disguises that he could draw from, so maybe this one wasn’t such a big deal.

If that was the case, it probably shouldn’t be such a big deal to Yagyuu either. He reminded himself of his original thinking: even if by any chance the project didn’t carry through all the way to the end, he would still have the progress in tennis he had made while practising for it.

There were some players who could play with both hands, switching on the fly. Maybe he should start doing that too, having gained quite a decent command of his left hand when practising to play as Niou. He was also a lot more versatile as a player now compared to when they started. His stamina was better, his technique was better, he could read the opponents better. Overall, he had became a lot stronger, and surely he had reason to be satisfied about that.

That was how rationally Yagyuu would have liked to approach the issue. But the truth was, enjoying his progress and working to hone his skills further at club practice was suffering from the negative feelings that kept rising from interactions with Niou. For reasons Yagyuu couldn’t quite understand, since their last talk Niou was actually seeming to be returning to his previous, familiar behaviour with Yagyuu. It was as if he had no problem with the way things were, and that in turn was making Yagyuu all the more upset, and – if he was being honest to himself – quite disappointed. To him, it showed Niou’s lack of seriousness about not only the partnership, but also the friendship Yagyuu thought they had been developing.

Another thought came up. What if teaming with Yagyuu had just been a way for Niou to ensure his way to the team? When the third year team members who Yagyuu had played doubles with at the nationals during the summer had stepped back to give space for the new members of the next year’s team, maybe it had been useful for Niou to establish himself as a new main partner for Yagyuu, already a regular at the time when Niou was not.

In a way, doing that would not have been wrong in itself. Neither of them had performed better with anyone else, so in that sense, no harm had been done. Yagyuu himself had agreed to their arrangement with rather pragmatic approach, too. But somewhere along the way, he had came to think that their combination was something worth a deeper commitment and effort. Now it just seemed like Niou might have been going the other way. That was the conclusion Yagyuu was coming to when he thought of the ease at which Niou had dismissed any attempt he had made to solve their disagreement.

Yagyuu was also disappointed in himself, though. He was usually so careful to mind his manners and treat everyone nicely, avoiding any unnecessary conflict, but he had let himself get angry that time in the karaoke place. And he had said things he wouldn’t have said to anyone else.

In hindsight, Yagyuu realised that was probably a sign of how close he had become with Niou. Because of that, he had allowed himself to be way more open and direct about his negative feelings than usual. Perhaps too direct.

Understanding that now didn’t really help Yagyuu forward. If Niou would have been willing to meet himself somewhere in the middle, he could have apologised for his own part in the issue. But Niou wasn’t doing that, so Yagyuu was just left with the realisation that their friendship apparently wasn’t strong enough to handle a situation like this.

Basically, if he wanted to continue things with Niou, it looked like he would need to go along with what Niou was doing – in other words, ignore the issue and pretend nothing had even happened.

It was really disappointing.

At the same time, he didn’t see much choice. Yagyuu still wanted to make no trouble for the team. He also didn’t want to show Niou how disenchanted he was by the turn of events. He still had his pride to uphold.

So, disappointed and angry as he was, Yagyuu continued to make every effort to behave as before.

It turned out relatively easy. He had an established way of going about things, and even under normal circumstances, was very conscious of his manner of conducting himself, so doing it intentionally against his mood wasn’t such a great challenge.

After all, if he had gained the ability to act like Niou, there should be no reason he couldn’t act like himself, too.

 

 

\- -

 

 

Things went on like that for a while. Tests and studying were taking a part of Yagyuu’s focus, a welcome diversion from other things. Training at the club continued as usual, too. The third years who were still around were getting ready to leave the club soon. Those who would stay were not too worried about losing them – Sanada and Yanagi had been better than all of them for a long while already, and recently the same could be said of the other top second years. Yukimura was still not back with them, but that was just making the team work all the more harder.

When a few weeks had passed from that evening in the karaoke booth, Niou sent a message Yagyuu hadn’t been waiting for anymore.

_‘private practice tomorrow?’_

By now, Yagyuu had no expectations that Niou meant anything else but actual practising. As the days had passed, he had calmed down from the worst of his disappointment, and didn’t feel any need to do something childish just to get back at Niou, like refuse meeting him like Niou had done earlier. It wouldn’t have gone with his decision to behave normally, either.

_‘Thank you for suggesting, Niou-kun. I believe I can organize the time.’_

_‘cool’  
_ _‘switched?’_

It had been a while. Yagyuu knew they needed to keep practising it. He just wasn’t very much in the mood for it.

_‘We do not really have the time to travel to another city after school and practice, do we?’_

_‘yeah, i wasn’t thinking we would.’_   
_'how about at your court? we did it there before’_

Well, it was an option. At least they wouldn’t need to spend so much time by the two of them in a train. Yagyuu went over a quick risk assessment; his sister would be home as usual, but tomorrow would be the day his mother volunteered at the hospital, reading magazines and books for the older patients.

It seemed like a decent enough opportunity.

_‘I see. Well, I suppose we can do that. My mother will not home until late tomorrow, so we can change at my home.’_

_‘nice’  
‘it’s warm enough for public toilets again, but that’s better’ _

That first time in the beginning, cramped in a stall and Niou grinning at him with so much excitement, felt like a really long time ago.

 

\- -

 

“I am glad that went smoothly," Niou said in Yagyuu’s voice as they had stepped out of the house the next day, without any incident with Yagyuu’s sister Shiori. She had come to say bye when they were on their way out, and hadn’t seemed to notice anything strange with his brother and his team mate as they had hastened to pick up their tennis bags and get going.

“Why wouldn’t it?” Yagyuu replied, putting his hands in his pockets as he watched Niou lock the door. “Let’s go.”

With their regular jerseys still wet from all the sweating in the afternoon practice, they had changed into their own sportswear. Well, to each other’s, to be specific. Niou was wearing one of Yagyuu’s Lacoste shirts under his jersey, while Yagyuu had borrowed Niou’s brandless t-shirt.

As Niou had noted, the spring was getting pleasantly warm already. The dusk still came quite early though, and the streetlamps were already turning on. White and pink plums were blooming on many of the yards they passed on their way to the neighbourhood court, and the air was sweet from their scent. It was still a while before the cherry blossoms would bloom, but it did feel like they were gradually moving to a new season.

They didn’t speak much on the way. Niou smiled to the neighbours they passed, and Yagyuu followed a step behind, back in a relaxed curve.

The court was empty, and Niou let them in. When they were setting down their things on the bench, he addressed Yagyuu in a polite tone.

“Would you like to take the first serve, Niou-kun?”

Yagyuu rested his racket on his shoulder and waited for Niou to finish folding his jacket. “Sure, whatever.”

They were still pretty warm from the afternoon practice, but also somewhat tired, so the rally they got into was relatively casual. At first, they weren’t even going for points, giving each other time to get comfortable with their non-dominant hands again.

Last night, Yagyuu had wondered how it would feel, being Niou after the fight and the change in perspective it had brought.

Even before the disagreement, he had been thinking there was a lot he didn’t know about Niou. That lack of understanding was only more pronounced now. Even as he was running on the court with a white wig on his head and contact lenses in his eyes, he didn’t know what he was supposed to be thinking as Niou.

The difference to before was that now Yagyuu was becoming ready to give up that pursuit.

Maybe he had been wrong before. Maybe trying to reach too deep had been just a recipe for complication and confusion. The more he had gotten preoccupied with things like what exactly Niou was thinking about on whichever small thing, what he really thought of the people around him, who else had he impersonated before and for what, what he would pray for when they visited a shrine together… hadn’t trying to reach for all that just made things difficult the way they were now?

At least when it came to tennis, it was starting to seem to Yagyuu like all of those things were rather inconsequential. Maybe it would have been better to ignore the inside and just focus on the right form. After all, wasn’t it most important that he knew how Niou tended to react to different shots, when he would go for a faint, when to give a game up and when to hit hard.

Knowing those things got him a nice amount of points off from Niou, now on the opposite side of the court looking like Yagyuu. However, Niou’s laser had also became faster than the last time they had played, so when they gradually started playing more seriously, neither of them could really get a significant lead over the other.

Seeing it now after a few weeks break, Yagyuu had to admit Niou’s form was already flawless. His swings came in clear and confident arches, and his expression was focused.

A bit belatedly, Yagyuu realised this was the first time to see Niou on the court wearing the new wig, the one Yagyuu had given to him at the karaoke place. It looked really good, moving naturally with his movements and the occasional breezes that cooled them in the midst of the game.

That was what Yagyuu had wanted to see when he had bought it, before things had become difficult. And maybe that kind of thing ﹣ looking right, good, whatever ﹣ was even more important now, if perfecting the surface was really the main priority.

Yagyuu felt a bit stupid again. He had been angry at Niou for many things, but perhaps it was he himself who had made a mistake by coming up with all kinds of expectations, when it all could have been that simple from the start.

Niou took the last point with a clean shot to a corner. As the game came to an end, Yagyuu pushed his sentimental thoughts to the side. They didn’t really go well with being Niou.

They reconvened at the benches, and he nodded at Niou.

“Nice game.”

“Thank you," Niou replied, picking up a neatly folded towel to dry some of the sweat running on his neck and temples. “You too, Niou-kun. You really caught me by surprise with some of your shots.”

“You returned a lot of them anyway, though.”

“Well, I tried my best to.”

“You always do.”

Yagyuu sat down, grabbed his water bottle and took a long drink while Niou unfolded his jersey and pulled it on before sitting down next to him.

Yagyuu assumed they would go home soon, switch back to themselves, and then Niou would go home. They still had some time to do that without a rush before his mother would come back home.

He wondered if it was okay to already break character. No one was around, so they didn’t really need to maintain the full switch just for show. Playing tennis like that had been fine, but if they were supposed to do some small talk now, he wasn’t sure what to say as Niou, taking into account how things had been lately.

He was about to go back to himself, when Niou spoke.

“Excuse me for the suddenness, Niou-kun, but now that we are together like this, I wanted to take this chance to talk about something.”

Huh?

Niou, wearing his glasses, was looking directly at him.

But Niou had avoided him until now. What was he doing now?

Was this Niou’s idea of committing to his role as Yagyuu, that he would try talking like this? But it was a mistake, Yagyuu thought. He wouldn’t have pushed for it anymore.

He had wanted to do this, though.

So, was this how they were going to do it, then?

But Yagyuu had no idea what to say as Niou – or if he was supposed to say anything at all. And surely Niou shouldn’t have known what to say as Yagyuu, either.

What was he playing at?

Even as his thoughts were racing, as Niou, Yagyuu tried to keep it cool.

“... Oh? About what?”

Niou didn’t hesitate.

“It is about this project of ours. I’m not sure how you feel about it, but I think lately our progress has rather slowed down.”

Yagyuu frowned. For a second he wondered if Niou was going to now use Yagyuu to say he wanted to drop it, but he continued.

“I find that unfortunate, and believe that if we want to pull it off to a satisfactory level, there are some steps we need to take next to move forward.”

Okay, no cancellation then. But what steps was he talking about?

“Such as?”

Niou was still looking directly at him.

“I would like to make sure that we can use it successfully in a real environment. Our trials until now have been rather easy, haven’t they. But at least from my point of view, we still need more practice and certainty before we attempt to use it in a situation where the club’s reputation and results are at stake.”

Yagyuu listened carefully at what Niou was saying as him.

He was starting to understand.

“You want to take it to school?”

“To practice, yes.”

… Well, wasn’t that smart of him.

What he was saying was certainly consistent with what Yagyuu himself had been saying before – not being fully sure if it would work, that they needed to practise and test it in order to make it really good.

Still, Yagyuu himself wouldn’t have suggest that, not right now. He might not even had said yes if Niou had suggested it. Not with the mood he was in, lately.

But now Niou had said it for him, and he was trapped. There was no reason for Niou to say no. After all, wasn’t it something he had done numerous times already, just in different disguises. It was no big deal.

Yagyuu had to be a little impressed with Niou for this, even if he did not exactly appreciate it.

He leaned back and spoke slowly.

“Huh. Yeah, we can do that. I’d say we’re ready for that. Should be a good way to top off this year at the club.”

Niou nodded, not smiling.

“I shall hope so, too.”


	11. Chapter 11

They agreed to do the test on the last week of the school year.

After some consideration, an afternoon practice on Monday seemed like the best option. That usually meant running, weight training and a longer stretching session, and since Niou and Yagyuu usually paired up for them, the interaction needed with others was limited. It was safest like that.

On the Sunday evening before the chosen day, when everyone else in the Yagyuu household had already retired to their rooms for the night, he was still sitting by his desk, looking into a mirror.

He had the wig and contacts on. On the table lay a pile of used cotton wipes with traces of makeup.

They would not use the disguise in class – it would have been unnecessary and risky. Instead, they were going to switch right before the afternoon practice begun, using the least crowded washing rooms on the school’s top floor. There was not much time in between the last lesson and beginning of practice, so they needed to be able to transform themselves quickly. After several tries, Yagyuu was confident that he was well prepared to do that.

Done with his practice, he started cleaning the desktop. The face wipes were discarded in an opaque plastic bag, and would go to a trash bin on the station. He didn’t want anyone at home finding any evidence of his makeup tests and getting any wrong ideas (nor right ones, for that matter).

Yagyuu was less anxious about the following day than he had thought he would be.

He was relatively sure that he didn’t have to worry about how Niou would portray him. The setting itself provided a safety net: in order to be eventually able to use the trick for its real purpose, they needed to stay in character to avoid being found out. The way he had pushed the test on Yagyuu was questionable, but other than that Niou had until now never used the switch with him for anything inappropriate.

As for his own part, having decided that getting the surface right was enough, Yagyuu wasn’t so worried about himself, either. Sometimes Niou was unpredictable in a way that was hard to imitate, but most days he focused on practice just like anyone else, so Yagyuu didn’t feel like he would need to do anything terribly eccentric to do Niou justice. And when it came to his usual behaviour, Yagyuu was pretty certain that by now he knew how to do it.

Done with cleaning his desk and packing the makeup supplies for tomorrow, he sat back down again, once more looking into the mirror.

It didn’t look like him dressed up as Niou anymore. As they had learned to disguise each other better and his eyes had gotten used to seeing himself like that, the image really came across as Niou now.

It was funny. He looked so much like him, but in his head, he was still very much himself.

Well, looking back, he had probably somewhat changed since the beginning of their project. Back then, he couldn’t have imagined himself being this confident about what they were about to do.

Granted, some of his confidence came from the change in standards. Perhaps if he was still hung up on his previous way of looking at the switch, thinking about all the things he still didn’t know about Niou and how those might come up and cause some problem, he might have felt more nervous about the coming day. Now he thought differently. If there was something he didn’t know, he would just fake it. If he made a wrong choice, then Niou could blame himself for not telling Yagyuu and take care of the issue by himself later with whatever misdirection or cover up he wanted.

Yagyuu tried grinning at the mirror. He turned his head, checking his face from different angles, and found nothing that needed to be fixed.

Out of a habit that he had picked up from Niou during all the times they had switched, he grabbed his phone to take some selfies. Even that was a lot faster to do than before. Nowadays he knew his good angles, the expressions to make as Niou, how to use the light, how to make some quick edits to the best pictures.

Funny enough, he never did that for himself. Niou did when he was Yagyuu, and that was how Yagyuu had gotten some decent pictures of himself – well, of Niou as him, but still. When he had followed Niou’s example and changed his profile picture in Line into one that was not really him, Marui had complimented him in the team chat for it ( _‘nice, looking good there Yagyuu!’_ ). Niou had sent a silly sticker with hearts on it.

When Yagyuu looked at the pictures he had just taken, he decided to send one for Niou, as some kind of a warm up for the following day. It seemed like something Niou might do.

He picked one, and opened Line to type something to go with the picture.

_‘ready for tomorrow?’_

He didn’t have to wait long for Niou to answer.

_‘Niou-kun, good evening. Yes, I am ready. As are you, it seems.’_

With the text came a picture of Niou as Yagyuu. He was fixing his glasses, looking straight into the camera with a tiniest hint of a smile.

Despite everything, Yagyuu had to smile a bit, too.

They might not have been able to solve their fight, but at least they were somehow aligned like this.

 

\- -

 

As calm as Yagyuu had been on the previous evening, when he went to morning practice with his wig, makeup supplies and contact lenses in his bag, he couldn’t help growing gradually more nervous in the anticipation of the afternoon.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened in the morning. Not many third years were around anymore, and due to that the club grounds felt spacious. Sanada and Yanagi had decided they would take advantage of the many free courts, ordering the whole club to play brief singles matches on a quick rotation so that everyone got a chance to play.

Yagyuu played a close match with Kirihara, both taking two games, as well as a two easy matches with other first years. He didn’t play at full power, not wanting to depress the young members unnecessarily, and made sure to give them some constructive feedback and advise afterwards. Unfortunately, they would not have the chance to be a part of the official team next year, but who knew if they might become regulars in a year from now, when Kirihara would in all likelihood gather a team around him.

The matches he had played came up later in the clubroom.

“Hey, Yagyuu," Sanada addressed him when he emerged from the showers, towel around his waist and his tone strict. “You were letting the first years off easy today. That’s not good. That way they won’t realize how much they’re lacking.”

“Ah, my apologies, Sanada-kun," Yagyuu replied, drying his hair by his locker. “I will remember that next time. But I believe the members I played against today seemed quite excited to continue practicing during the upcoming school year.”

“That’s good if they were. But being excited is not enough. We will need players who are ready to work hard to win. The first years are still too soft.”

“Is that so? Well, if you think it might be useful, Sanada-kun, I would definitely be happy to contribute more time next year to help you and Yanagi-kun to work with them.”

Niou showed up from the showers and joined the conversation, water running down from his untied hair.

“So nice, as usual, Yagyuu. But don’t listen to him, Sanada. I need him training with me.”

Sanada scoffed. “You also need more supervision than the young ones.”

Niou grinned. “You heard him, Yagyuu.”

Yagyuu really wished Niou wasn’t setting him up for Sanada’s future disappointment like that. With what they were planning, he was more likely to be accused of enabling Niou than thanked for keeping an eye on him.

 

  
\- -

  
  


The classes that day went by slower than usual, even though Yagyuu tried to push the upcoming afternoon out of his mind to focus on the nearly last lessons of the school year.

Finally, the bell rang to signal the end of the day, and the students got ready to head to their club activities. Yagyuu said the customary thank-yous and see-you-tomorrows to his classmates, and then headed to a direction different from usual.

Niou was waiting for him at the top floor by the end of the stairway.

“Yo.”

“Hello, Niou-kun.”

“All good?”

“I believe so.”

“Cool.”

The washroom seemed mostly empty when they entered. One boy was washing his hands and was soon on his way out. Niou entered a stall furthest to the end, and Yagyuu took the one next to it.

Then, it was time to do it.

Yagyuu started by getting his hair out of the way, tucking it under a wig cap. He packed away his glasses and put on his contacts. Next, he applied the quick makeup, including the mole.

Niou knocked quietly on the wall between their stalls, and proceeded to drop his shirt through the space between the wall and the roof. Yagyuu stripped his own and did the same. Even though they were exactly the same model and size, Niou had mentioned earlier how their clothes smelled different, so it was better to switch them just in case.

When he had changed, the final thing was to pull on the wig and secure it with a few pins.

That was it. He was supposed to be ready.

Everything looked okay in the small hand mirror. Still, his pulse was starting to speed up.

Reality was sinking in: they would soon face people who saw them every day. Would they really notice nothing?

Maybe it was crazy after all, going along with something like this. He and Niou weren’t even on normal terms at the moment – were they really prepared to put themselves in each other’s position and go in front of the others the way they were now?

Before Yagyuu could come up with more last minute doubts, there was a sound of a door opening and closing, and he realized it was Niou getting out of the stall next to his. Except that now it would not be a Niou anymore, but to everyone who would see him, a Yagyuu.

With that, he was forced to make up his mind. It was too late to be having second thoughts at this point. They were going to do this, and the time for further reflection, like deciding whether he was crazy or not, would have to come later.

Yagyuu took a deep breath. It was time to be Niou.

When he stepped out of his stall, Niou, in his perfect Yagyuu look, was carefully washing his hands. Yagyuu just shoved his into his pockets.

“Let’s get going.”

As they made their way down the stairs, they passed by some of their classmates. Yagyuu knew all of Niou’s to some extent through his work in the student council, but as Niou, didn’t react to them much. Meanwhile, Niou nodded and smiled pleasantly to each of Yagyuu’s classmates they saw.

Yagyuu kept looking for any wondering gazes, but found none. It seemed like no one really looked that closely.

They were just out of the main doors when someone addressed them. Chills went down Yagyuu’s spine.

“Yagyuu-kun!”

It was someone from the student council. Niou turned and bowed his head slightly at the boy approaching them.

“Kamikawa-kun, hello. Can I help you with something?”

Oh good, he had remembered the name. His voice sounded nice, but at least to Yagyuu, not exactly the same as his. Not saying anything, Yagyuu looked at the boy who often sat opposite him in student council meetings, but didn’t notice any change in his expression.

“Actually, there was something I wanted to confirm with you about the previous council meeting, since I missed it the last time. It’s about the yearbook…”

Well, shit. Yagyuu glanced at Niou. He wouldn’t know something like that – during their preparation, Yagyuu had told Niou about the type of things they handled in the student council in general, but not in that detail.

He needed to save Niou. To do so, he put on an annoyed look.

“Don’t you guys make notes of your meetings? We’re on our way to practice right now.”

The boy looked embarrassed, and Niou’s apologetic expression was pretty believable. “Niou-kun, please do not be rude. However, is true that I do need to be at the tennis club soon, and I would rather like to have more time to discuss the questions you have. If it is alright with you, Kamikawa-kun, I would be happy to talk about the yearbook with you tomorrow before the first class. My apologies, but do you think that would that be okay?"

“Uh, yeah, of course. Sorry to bother you when you’re busy!”

“Oh, not at all. I will look forward to discussing with you tomorrow, then.”

When the boy went on his way, Niou gave Yagyuu a nod, and he nodded back. With that taken care of, they seemed to be safe for now, and continued their way towards the club house.

Then, it was time for the harder part.

Marui and Kirihara were making noise when they entered the room.

“I’m telling you, that’s why you need the continental grip for that kind volley!”

“But I just pulled it off with western this weekend!”

“Well maybe you did, but it’s not going to be good like that!”

“Maybe I’m just more genius than you, senpai! ‘Cause it was no problem for me.”

“Pfft, as if!”

“Good day, everyone," Niou greeted no one in particular, while Yagyuu said nothing when they went to their lockers.

“Hey Yagyuu, how about some doubles today after practice?” Marui suggested. “You and me against Akaya and Jackal or something? This guy needs a lesson on real volleying!”

Jackal spoke to Marui while putting on his wrist weights. “Didn’t you say you wanted to go for hamburgers today?”

“We can still go after, right?”

“Well," Niou interrupted them to answer, “let us see after practice, shall we?”

Yagyuu wasn’t thrilled about the idea – they should just get out as soon as they could and switch back to themselves – but maybe Niou was just being polite for now. If necessary, he guessed he would drag him off on some excuse.

Still, even now no one had noticed anything. Despite the small difference Yagyuu thought he could hear, Niou was doing a good job with his voice, and his choices of words were appropriate. Thank goodness.

No one noticed even when they stripped off their school uniforms and changed into their regular jerseys. Niou was skinnier than Yagyuu, and had anyone been looking, they could have picked that up and question either of them about the sudden change in their bodies. But no one did.

No one was speaking to him, either. Yagyuu usually engaged in some small talk with someone in the club room as they were preparing for practice, but as Niou, he kept to himself and no one approached him.

Soon everyone was changed and ready to make it to the courts. This afternoon the remaining third years were booked to practice with the second years who were not part of the regular team to transfer whatever advise they still had to give, while the first years would be doing basic technique drills. The regulars gathered around Sanada and Yanagi to confirm their agenda, and Yagyuu was grateful everyone’s attention was directed at them.

“A few practice sessions to go before this year ends," Sanada told them in a serious tone. “We’ll have new first years joining the club soon. I expect all of you to practice hard this week and be ready to show Rikkai’s strength to the newcomers. Everyone got that?”

“Yes sir!”

It was the most enthusiastic reply Yagyuu had ever heard from Niou. If it wasn’t for his nerves, he might have grinned at it.

“Good. Then, 15 minutes usual warm up, before we do some running. Get to it.”

They all took some space to do their thing, and Yagyuu positioned himself so that he wasn’t directly facing anyone. Niou did the same, if somewhat more subtly than him.

All the while they did the warm up, he had to keep his curiosity in check to not keep glancing at the others to see if they were looking at him or Niou.

It felt a little unbelievable that no one was saying anything. His pulse was still going faster than normal, half-expecting someone to realize at any moment. But at the same time, another feeling was starting to come up – something like a thrill, or perhaps satisfaction at the fact that no one was getting it.

Was this how Niou felt when he got away with his pranks? When Yagyuu stole a look at him, his expression was perfectly neutral.

After the warm up, they got to running. As usual, Yagyuu went with Niou.

When they were sufficiently far away from the others, Niou spoke up.

“Sanada-kun seems to look forward to new members joining the club.”

Yagyuu glanced at him. Was this talk somehow meant to complete the illusion, even though no one else was near to hear it? He swallowed, reaching for the right voice.

“More people to yell at. Must be exciting.”

“But he is right, we all do need to work hard. Both for the sake of the team, and for ourselves. Who knows, perhaps other talented and driven new members like Kirihara-kun will join us and the competition for the places in the regular team will accelerate.”

“Even if those kind of players join, they’re not gonna be better than us.”

“It is not good to be too self-assured, Niou-kun.”

“It’s just realism. Even if they’re good players, what are the odds they’ll come in pairs? No way we’ll need to worry about our spot in doubles.”

Niou looked at him from the side of his eye, somewhat hidden by the frame of his glasses, and didn’t immediately reply. Yagyuu turned his gaze ahead, and continued running in silence.

The words he had said unthinkingly as Niou started sinking in for himself.

A year ago around the same time, Yagyuu had known he would be playing in the team, but back then, he didn’t have a permanent partner. Aware of his position as the least strong among the second year regulars, he had expected to sit on the bench a lot as a substitute.

This time, it was different. As they would soon begin their third year in Rikkai, he and Niou would be starting it as a doubles pair. Ever since the nationals last summer, they had spent hours upon hours practising together, and as the pair with the best track record among the club’s current doubles combinations, they would form the core of Rikkai doubles for the upcoming year.

With that kind of an outlook, as himself Yagyuu still felt it was a shame how things were between them. Then how was it that as Niou, it was so easy to say they didn’t have much to worry about?

Finally, Niou cleared his throat and came back with his reply. “Well, in that case, let us get along well next year, as well.”

It was a common enough phrase to be justifiable. Yagyuu wasn’t sure if he would have said it exactly like that, but didn’t feel like he could argue.

Talking while switched was making things strange.

“Yeah.”

They focused on running after that. At some point Yagyuu felt sweat starting to run down his neck, and the long hair of his wig stuck to his skin. Spring was already quite warm, and glancing at Niou, Yagyuu came to think of how the temperatures might be difficult for him when they would eventually do the switch during summer months. As Yagyuu, Niou would need to tolerate the heat without complaining, even though the wig would make it even more uncomfortable than usual. Even now, sweat was forming on his face, and he had to wipe it off to keep the glasses from running down on his nose.

When they had run the amount they had been told to, they returned to the starting place for a water break. Marui and Jackal were already there, Kirihara arrived soon with Yanagi, and Sanada came soon after, not much out of breath.

It was the time for gym, and Yagyuu was eager to go already. Having all team members gathered in one place like this was risky for him and Niou, and the shorter the time was, the better.

Perhaps Niou was thinking the same, as he opened his mouth.

“Shall we move on to gym practice, as usual, then?”

The answer was not what they expected, though.

“No, not today," Sanada replied. “As I said earlier, it is the last week of the school year. That’s why we will now be changing the usual pattern and doing something different for the rest of the week.”

Something different? Yagyuu felt his stomach tighten. He and Niou had purposefully chosen this day because of the usual routine. Something different sounded like something bad.

The others didn’t seem worried. Kirihara’s eyes were lighting up, and Marui wanted to know more.

“Hee, what’s that?”

“We will be playing matches. The real kind, not just practice games.”

What?

Yanagi continued from Sanada’s words. “Indeed. As you are all aware, it seems Seiichi’s treatment is taking a longer time than expected. While we are still hoping for him to join us as soon as possible, we need to be prepared to perform well in this summer’s tournament even without him. In order to do that, we need a better picture of everyone’s current performance in serious matches.”

“That’s right. Expect to go all out. If you don’t, don’t expect to play in the tournament.”

“Alright!” Kirihara cheered. “Senpai, prepare to be crushed!”

“We will start with the first two matches today, and continue with various combinations during this week," Yanagi explained. “Some of the matches will be filmed as well, so that we can show Seiichi your development until now.”

“Nice! He’ll be so impressed at my new volley techniques!”

As the others were getting excited, Yagyuu had cold sweat forming on his skin. This was not what they had planned for, not by a long shot. By the sound of it, the result of the matches could even affect their position in the team, and perhaps the matches they would be given in the tournament.

It was a terrible timing for him and Niou.

That was, if they were the ones to play today. He mustered up his best disinterested, cool tone.

“So, what’s the line up?”

Yanagi answered. “We will play one doubles match and one singles match today. For singles, we will start by Marui versus Jackal.”

“What, no doubles for us today?”

“Interesting," Jackal said, crossing his arms. “I’m in.”

“Geh, but playing against Jackal is so annoying! He’s like too tenacious!”

“That’s exactly why we want to see this," Sanada said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re getting too selfish playing with him.”

Before they got further with the discussion, Yanagi continued.

“As for the doubles match, today we will play a match between myself and Genichirou against Niou and Yagyuu.”

It took all of Yagyuu’s self-discipline to refrain from reacting. From the side of his eye, he saw Niou looking at him, and he looked back from under the white hair.

Shit.

“Whaat, I’m not playing today? Why?”

“You will be recording the singles match. Don’t worry, your turn will come soon, too.”

“But when? I want to play today!”

“The rest of the week’s matches will be announced as we go," Yanagi told them. “Now, get ready. We will start in five minutes. Make sure your arms and wrists are well warmed up.”

“Understood," Niou said, sounding calm. “Which court shall we convene to?”

“We’ll take number six. Marui and Jackal, go to seven. And remember everyone, today we expect to see the fighting spirit you’re going to show in the nationals. No slacking off will be accepted from anyone. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir!”

As everyone dispersed to go get their water bottles and prepare for what was to come, Yagyuu and Niou grabbed theirs and took some distance from the others.

Yagyuu was, if not panicking, getting very, very worried.

This was definitely not what they had prepared for.

No matter how one looked at it, they had a major disadvantage. Playing against Sanada and Yanagi would be a great challenge under normal circumstances, and now they would be playing against them with their non-dominant hands, holding up a front different from their everyday appearances. They couldn’t even use the shock factor that revealing the switch was supposed to have, since it was to be reserved for actual opponents in the tournament.

They had four minutes. It wasn’t enough to go and change back to themselves.

Niou spoke.

“Well, this was an unexpected turn for the day.”

“Yeah.”

Yagyuu really wanted to break character and talk to Niou as himself, but there were too many people too close by. As he was still thinking what to do, Niou lowered his voice.

“What do you think we should do?”

The voice was Yagyuu’s, but he wasn’t sure about the words. He thought he heard some hesitation – was that Niou guessing and portraying some of how Yagyuu was feeling, or Niou himself asking for his opinion?

Honestly, Yagyuu felt very unsure about how to answer.

“Well, what can we do?” he said, keeping Niou’s voice. “It’s not like we can run off the court.”

“Not really, no.”

With no way out and Niou seeming to expect something from him, Yagyuu tried to focus.

What would Niou say or do in a situation like this?

Well, at least as far as he knew, Niou never panicked. He got annoyed, and he could complain, but when it came to tennis, Yagyuu had never seen him lose confidence. Niou never backed down from something just because things didn’t go as expected, because he always came up with some way to do his own thing.

And all the time they had been preparing for this, Niou had been saying they could do this, so he probably wouldn’t be scared now either. The match they had been assigned was just more and faster than intended, but so what?

In a situation where they didn’t have much choice, Yagyuu guessed taking that kind of an attitude made some sense.

“So, we play. What else is there to it?”

Niou took his time looking at him and considering something, before finally nodding, all serious.

“I suppose you are right. For better or worse, it will be a test of our progress until now.”

“Yeah. So we just do what we always do and see how it goes.”

“Yes. Well, as Sanada-kun said, let us go for our best performance.”

Yagyuu nodded. Performance, indeed.


	12. Chapter 12

Soon the time for warm-up and preparation before the matches was over, and Niou and Yagyuu went to the court they had been assigned to. Sanada was already there, but Yanagi was still helping Kirihara get started with recording Jackal and Marui’s match on another court.

After they had set their things down, Sanada came to shake their hands.

“Let’s play a good match," he said simply, looking at Yagyuu straight in the eyes.

Awkward about being so close and still worried of being found out, Yagyuu kept his other hand stuffed in his pocket and averted his gaze. “Yeah.”

Niou, on his turn, seemed to take Sanada’s look and greeting straight on.

“Thank you for playing us, Sanada-kun. Indeed, let us have a good match.”

Yagyuu scanned Sanada for any hint of recognition, but he was just frowning in his usual expression.

“Sorry for the wait," Yanagi said as he showed up, the singles match having started on the neighbouring court. He, too, came to shake their hands, and then there was nothing to do but to start the game.

Niou won them the right to choose the side and serving order, and turned to Yagyuu to confirm their plan. Yagyuu suggested they let Sanada and Yanagi start – he wanted some time to just take them in first – so they went with that.

Before they took their places on the court, he gestured for Niou to wait.

His pulse was still going fast from the surprise announcement that they were doing this match. People were gathering around their court to watch, and with so many eyes on them, a part of him dreaded that at some point someone would realize what he and Niou were doing. But at the same time, as they had stepped on the court and begun going through the usual routines of starting a match, a certain familiarity was starting to take hold of him.

Despite the unintended situation they had gotten themselves into, this was tennis. It was what they did almost everyday. And now they would do it in the very form they had undertaken all their extra practice for.

He thought maybe Yagyuu needed to hear something to that effect.

Niou had stopped to look at him. “Yes, Niou-kun?”

Yagyuu cocked his head back a little. “We’re going for the win, right?”

Niou was quiet for a moment, before holding out his fist. ”Well, as you said earlier, we are doing the same as always, are we not?”

When Yagyuu touched his fist to Niou’s, he felt a bit reassured. At least they were in this together.

Yagyuu took his place by the net, and Niou went to be the receiver. When they were set, Sanada didn’t waste any time to hit the first serve.

They lost the first point, and soon the first game, but by the second one they started getting into the game.

With each rally, Yagyuu was gradually calming down and getting more focused. He reminded himself that it was natural that the beginning was difficult. It was always like that when they started with their wrong hands, and unsurprisingly Sanada and Yanagi were playing harder than any of the casual opponents they had faced in their private practice matches so far.

Besides, he thought, trying to do so as Niou – they had practiced for this a lot over the spring, winter and autumn. They were already able to do it. All they needed to do was to look at the ball and calmly hit it as usual.

When their shots started becoming more secure, it was time for him to do his job at the net. That was, to figure out where to hit.

They saw Sanada and Yanagi every day and knew their habits and styles, but a serious game with them like this was a first, so he couldn’t just rely on previous experiences. If he had learned something from Niou, it was to not just blindly assume, but to really look and see for himself.

To do that properly, he left some balls that were coming to him for Niou to pick up. After a couple misses, Niou was able to follow up on them, and Yagyuu could focus.

When they changed courts at 2-1, he shared his observations with Niou in low voice.

“Did you see Yanagi hesitating some in the last game? Sanada is taking some of the shots that are not his. They’re not a real pair so they have holes like that. Hit more to the middle.”

Niou agreed. “Understood. I had the same impression.”

Hearing that gave Yagyuu confidence. He continued.

“Also, Sanada seems kinda slow today. Let’s make him run more.”

“I see. Anything else?”

“Let’s start with these and see how it goes.”

It went better than expected. Sanada and Yanagi made a few misses from the middle of the court, and with successful volleys from Yagyuu, they were able to take two games to make the score 2-3 to their advantage. Most points were behind a fight though, and with both pairs taking points from each game, progress was slow.

But damn if it wasn’t satisfying to get a point from a good volley. Yagyuu didn’t get to do it often since Niou usually took care of the net when they played together, but the switch gave that role to him. Seeing the opponents’ reactions from up close was one part of the package; Yanagi kept his cool, but Sanada tended to show what he was feeling, whether it was annoyance at missing his return, or some recognition for a good shot.

Yagyuu thought that as Niou, he should go for that annoyance part.

When they changed courts after the successful games, Niou addressed him.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself, Niou-kun.”

“Well, we’re leading, aren’t we?”

“Sure. But let us not let get complacent. Sanada-kun and Yanagi-kun have not used all their skills yet.”

“Neither have we. How about hitting the laser soon? You should be all warmed up for it.”

Niou nodded. “I will, when the right chance comes.”

Not many chances came in the next two games. Some of Niou’s serves came out weaker than usual. Getting it right was sometimes challenging on one’s dominant hand, let alone switched. It was one of the major challenges they still had and couldn’t be helped for now, but it cost them a game and their lead.

The next serve was Yanagi’s. Their game was growing more and more solid, no longer making any clashes or misses from mid-court. Sanada took several points with his forceful shots, significantly more powerful than they had been even a couple of months ago. When the racket flew from Yagyuu’s hand as he tried to return one of them from the net, he cursed under his breath, not particularly having to force the word out of his mouth. He still didn’t have enough gripping power in his left hand. That miss took them to 4-3.

Niou looked serious when they changed courts and stopped to sip some water.

“As expected, this is turning out to be a challenging match.”

“Yeah. Sanada’s shots are fucking annoying.”

“Niou-kun, language. Don’t forget we are on a tennis court.”

“Whatever. I’ll get it two-handed next time. Cover me so I can go for backhand on that, ok?”

“It sounds rather risky, but I see your intention. Please leave it to me.”

The break ended, and Yagyuu took his place as the server. As the first one landed, he and Niou immediately switched places between front and back courts.

They got into long rallies, each side taking points. Everyone was sweating by now, and the wig was starting to feel hot, but Yagyuu didn’t have much time to dwell on it. He really needed to land the next volleys.

Then one of those shots from Sanada came again, but it was for his forehand side and the moment’s hesitation allowed the ball to fly past him. Fuck, he still couldn’t…

The ball came back from behind him, fast, and Sanada and Yanagi weren’t able touch it.

Yagyuu couldn’t help himself, and turned to look back.

Niou’s form for the follow-up of the laser looked pretty perfect to him at that moment.

He just had to remind himself not to call him by that name.

“Nice shot, Yagyuu.”

Anyone further away probably couldn’t see the small smile on Niou’s face, but Yagyuu did.

“Let us continue.”

It was about time he had hit that. It proved successful again, another one of the same shots finishing the game in their favour to 4-4.

Sanada and Yanagi were still looking more impressed than pressured, but no matter what was on their faces, they should have been feeling some heat. Yagyuu, for his part, was definitely starting to feel more confident. The match was looking decent again. But it wasn’t only that. Ever since he had joined the team last year, the two boys on the other side of the court had always been a step ahead, easily winning most matches. Yagyuu had accepted that. But here they were, he and Niou, now playing an even game against them.

Yagyuu let himself grin at the thought. As Niou, he could.

But confidence or not, the game was not getting any easier. The next serve was Sanada’s, and if the vice-captain was feeling any pressure, it was not causing any mistakes, but even harder shots than before.

“Shit," Yagyuu swore when one of his attempted returns went out of bounds.

Sanada was looking pretty triumphant about it. “What’s wrong, Niou? Not enough strength to control it? Catching my shot is meaningless if you can’t hit it back.”

Yagyuu got ready to receive again, but realized he was probably supposed to talk back. “Stick to serving, Sanada. It does more for me than your old man shit-talk.”

“Genichirou is only six months and thirteen days older than you, Niou.”

It was somewhat funny to see how that little piece of data from Yanagi didn’t seem to soothe Sanada too much.

Their opponents had reason to look satisfied again soon enough though, when Yanagi’s favourite slice shot resolved the game in their favour, bringing the game to 5-4.

Yagyuu waited for Niou to come to him so that they could talk while they changed courts again.

“This is getting dangerous," he said, and Niou nodded.

“Indeed. Please focus on the game instead of bantering with Sanada-kun.”

“Meh, he started it. Anyway. Any ideas?”

“Well, they haven’t been able to return my fast shot yet. If we can create more chances for me to use it, that should help us move forward.”

“I like your confidence. Okay, let’s do that. Another thing from me.”

“What is it?”

Yagyuu thought he had noticed something in the last two games. He hadn’t been sure at first, and still wasn’t 100%, but if he was right...

“Yanagi sometimes doesn’t change his grip properly between different types of shots. Let’s shoot some variety at him.”

Was it just him, or did Niou actually look a bit impressed at that?

“Understood. Then, let us play with concentration and keep this match alive.”

“Yeah.”

Niou offered his forearm for Yagyuu to bump, and he mirrored the gesture. They were definitely not going to give up now.

Another game with long rallies started, and frustratingly, their opponents took the first two points. It really was getting dangerous.

Yagyuu looked back at Niou, standing on the back court preparing for his serve, and nodded at him wordlessly. They were not over yet, but they needed to do something here.

The third rally started, but didn’t get far before Sanada was swinging for another one of his killer techniques.

Fuck. He really didn’t want to lose any more points trying to return them.

Then, maybe he just shouldn’t. He wasn’t the only one on the court, after all.

Sanada’s face twitched when Yagyuu locked eyes with him, not making a move to touch the ball.

He heard the sound of the ball’s impact with a racket behind his back, and then the ball flew past him and the point was announced for them.

“30-15!”

This time, he didn’t look back. He wanted to, but didn’t. After all, he did know the sight without looking.

The corner of his mouth was tugging. Apparently good things could happen if you just trusted your partner.

It didn’t mean that as Niou he would always listen to what Yagyuu said, though. ‘Don’t banter with Sanada’, was it?

“What’s wrong Sanada? Too slow to catch that? Not much point in all that muscle if you can’t get to the ball, huh?”

Sanada’s brow twiched.

“Who are you to talk? You didn’t even try returning that yourself. It’s Yagyuu who got the point.”

Yagyuu opened his mouth to continue, but Niou was faster.

“I believe it was the result of our doubles play, Sanada-kun," he said from the backcourt. “And Niou-kun, please refrain from such unnecessary commentary. We are in the middle of a match.”

Yagyuu liked to think his admonishments weren’t usually quite as stating-the-obvious as that, but agreed that Niou was right to tell him off. As Niou, he just wasn’t supposed to admit that, so he waved his hand in the air without turning around. “Yeah, yeah.”

But that aside… the result of their doubles play, huh?

The rest of the game went well for them. Getting to 5-5 was a momentary relief – at least now they knew the match would continue for a while more, up to seven games, one way or the another.

The next game was Yanagi’s serve. Niou and Yagyuu took some of the first points, but Sanada and Yanagi pushed back hard.

It was harder than any game they had played as a pair. They were getting out of breath, and Yagyuu could feel his arm losing power and his legs getting tired. But they were too far to give up – further than he had thought they could come when the match had been announced. They just couldn’t let it go anymore.

Their own receive miss made the game 6-5.

It was the final court change before either 7-5 or tiebreak. The serve would be his. He would have to nail it.

When Yagyuu went on to pick some balls in preparation for his serve, Niou came to hand some to him, looking at him straight in the eye. Sweat was running down his face, but the wig was still well in place, same as when they started.

“Niou-kun, if I may.”

“What?”

“This might not usually be my line, but it looks like some risk-taking has paid off in this match. Perhaps it is needless of me to say, but I hope you will not feel pressured to play too safe.”

Studying his face, Yagyuu went over the words. Basically, it was the same thing Niou had said to him a while ago as criticism – that Yagyuu had been playing too cautiously as Niou. And yet this time, it didn’t seem like a complaint. It sounded more like an endorsement.

Yagyuu had thought about it before, how things become unclear sometimes when they talked switched. Their hands touched when he took the balls from Niou.

“Heh, it sounds pretty sketchy when it’s you who’s saying that.”

“Why would you think so? There is no hidden meaning to it.”

“Whatever you say. Let’s go take the game.”

Yanagi and Sanada were ready on the court when he took his position to serve.

If they lost this game, it was over for them. Like Niou had said, there was a pressure to play safe.

Taking a deep breath, he gathered his concentration and reminded himself of the very basics. Throw the ball high enough. Look at the ball. Let your elbow lead the way. Pronate your arm properly.

And then all that, but not too carefully. It was sink or swim here.

He threw the ball in the air, and then, he hit it with all his strength.

The ball hit the corner of the line, and became an ace.

Not even slightly shaken, Yanagi commented from the other side of the net.

“Commendable, Niou. That was the best serve from you in this game. Keep that up in the future.”

Without answering to Yanagi, Yagyuu turned to Niou instead.

“Yo, Yagyuu. Sounds like they’re still not scared of us, doesn’t it.”

“Well, please proceed to hit the second serve and take the next point as well.”

That was maybe a bit too confident to say as Yagyuu. But as Niou, he had to agree.

The next one was good too, but not an ace. Before the rally got any longer, Niou returned Sanada’s return with a laser.

This time neither of them said anything. Getting results was way better than any show of confidence.

Sanada and Yanagi took the points back, then Niou and Yagyuu did. As they played, Yagyuu vaguely registered the sound of some club members commenting on the match between points, but he was too busy to take a look at how many had gathered to watch the match by now.

Only a couple more points. They needed only that, and the games would be even. Against Sanada and Yanagi, of all people. And above all, him and Niou as each other.

Right then and there, that last part felt easy. Reading the game, running and swinging the racket, he didn’t really have to think about it anymore. The movements came naturally, and it was going well, better than he had thought it would.

And still no one had realized the trick.

It was tough, but honestly, Yagyuu was having fun. He wanted to keep playing, and then, he wanted to win.

Finally, Niou’s shot from the back court brought the rally to an end and the games to 6-6.

They were going into a tiebreak.

Sanada looked like he was going to say something, but Yanagi wasted no time calling him up to strategize. That was a cause for worry. Following them with his eyes, Yagyuu recalled a few times when Niou had expressed, even if subtly, respect to Yanagi. There were not so many people Niou respected, so when he did, it was for a reason.

When Yagyuu turned for their bench, Niou was already there, holding up a water bottle for him. Yagyuu took it from him and nodded.

“So, this is where it gets real.”

Niou nodded back.

“Indeed. How is your condition?”

“I can still play. So. It’s one serve from Sanada, then you, Yanagi and me. And I guess we’re not gonna get seven points in a row, so…”

“I assume so, as well.”

Niou glanced at Sanada and Yanagi on the other side of the court, but didn’t leave his gaze there. In normal circumstances, this was the time when Yagyuu would have liked to hear what Niou was guessing their opponents would bring for the next points, but Niou wasn’t Niou just now, so Yagyuu couldn’t ask. Niou continued speaking on another topic.

“That no-touch ace from you in the previous game was outstanding.”

“Heh, yeah. If we could dish out four of those, we’d have no problem.”

“Indeed. Well, for now it seems as though our chances are better in returns.”

“And they’re probably not going to make them easy for us. Better keep alert for any weird spins in their service returns, especially from Yanagi.”

“I see. Well, it seems like time is running out. Let us continue as until now and discuss again at seven points.”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, Niou, Yagyuu!”

The sudden call was Marui’s, and following the direction of the voice, Yagyuu found him and Jackal from the sidelines, among several other club members who had gathered to watch their game.

“I’ll be pissed if you lose here! Don’t let Sanada and Yanagi walk over us doubles players!”

“Yeah!” Kirihara, who was also with them yelled. “Marui-senpai already lost his own match, so don’t make him any more sad!”

Niou was about to say something, but Sanada was louder.

“Silence, you idiots! If you have time to bother our game, go watch the video of your own match and make a list of your mistakes. I want to see you hand it to Renji by the end of today’s practice!”

As Jackal started ushering Marui and Kirihara off on their way, Niou cleared his throat and Yagyuu checked Sanada and Yanagi’s faces while taking his place on the court. Not a very classy interruption, but with any luck, it might take away some of Sanada’s concentration just before his serve.

It didn’t. The game was 1-0 before they had even touched the ball. It didn’t seem like a lucky hit, either. They would be in trouble if that was how he was going to hit his serves from now on.

Niou didn’t seem intimidated, and proceeded with his first serve swiftly. The short rally ended in their favour. The next one didn’t, and they were at 2-1. They should have done better on a rotation in which they didn’t need to waste time switching between front and back courts. There was no time to dwell on it, but it did make him feel nervous.

The next serve was Yanagi’s. Yagyuu managed to return the ball in an inconvenient angle for them, and Sanada’s return went long. 2-2.

Yanagi’s next serve was strong, and Niou’s return stopped into the net, taking them to 3-2.

Niou hadn’t said anything just now, but Yagyuu could see he was getting tired. Sanada and Yanagi were sweating, but not really showing signs of fatigue. Yagyuu bit his lip. They really needed to end the game as soon as possible.

It was time for his serve.

The first one was mediocre, and Yanagi’s return came in at an difficult place, messing up their dashes to switch between front and back courts. It was probably exactly what the team’s strategist had been aiming for. The rally continued for a while, but he and Niou didn’t recover from the bad beginning, and lost the point. 4-2.

Yagyuu had one more serve here. He really didn’t feel like he could hit another ace like before, and didn’t want a replication of what had happened just now.

Maybe he should just do something totally different. Something he had done a lot during all those times when he had started hitting the ball against the wall, practising for the switch by himself.

It wasn’t elegant at all, but as Niou, it didn’t need to be.

He reached out his hand, and instead of lifting the ball into the air, dropped it down and hit it in an underhand serve, dashing to the front.

Yanagi looked surprised when returning the ball, and Sanada got visibly angry.

“Niou, what was that? Are you giving up?”

“Ha, dream on!”

Niou hit the ball, and then they were securely in their dedicated sides of the court again.

The return went to Yanagi, and from there to Yagyuu. He tried to hit a cross to end the rally, but Sanada was there, going for a hard hit once again and shouting as if he was in a dojo instead of a tennis court.

With no time to think, Yagyuu went for the ball. Just in time, he got his both hands on the grip, and hit back as hard as he could.

“4-3!” the first year referee called out. The point was theirs.

It was about damn time he was able to return that.

“Excellent, Niou-kun!” Niou came to say to him as they switched court, the tiebreak having reached a total of seven points. “I was worried about that rally with your underhand serve, but it looks like the provocation worked.”

Sanada was looking at him from the other side of the court. Realizing he could play with that, Yagyuu grinned, and offered Niou a high touch.

“Like a charm.”

Truth be told, he didn’t think they could pull something like that a second time. There was a limit to how many times you could rattle someone with easy stuff like that. He went serious again.

“So. We need four more points. At least. And it’s serves from Sanada, you, Yanagi, and then me again if we go that far.”

“Yes. I shall do my best with mine. At the very least, we don’t need to worry about service dashes being interrupted there.”

“Yeah. But they have an advantage, having more serves coming up next at this point. We better get the points from ours.”

“I agree. Let us aim for that.”

They got ready to receive Sanada’s serve. The first one was strong, and they struggled to hit it back. With luck, the ball touched the edge of the cord and was short, causing Yanagi to rush and miss his sweet spot. From there, Niou was able to make a clean return for 4-4.

Sanada looked annoyed when he prepared for his second serve, but even then his performance wasn’t hampered. The loud sound of impact was followed by a shot that was too fast to touch. Yagyuu cursed, but was cut off quickly when the referee announced the serve had been out.

Sanada made a sound of frustration, and was already digging for another ball from his pocket when Niou suddenly walked up from the back court, addressing the first year acting as the referee.

“Excuse me, but I am afraid that ball was barely on line. Sanada-kun and Yanagi-kun have deserved the point.”

What? The ruling had just saved them from losing a point there, so why was he pulling something like that now? As the boy sitting on the referee chair stuttered and begun consulting with Yanagi about the protocol for checking and possibly changing rulings, Yagyuu went to Niou and addressed him in lowered voice.

“Hey, what’re you doing? It was a first fault, they were gonna get a second chance anyway. We don’t need to give them free points.”

Leaning in to talk with him, Niou shook his head. Some strands of his brown hair moved with the motion, some were glued to his forehead with sweat.

“No, Niou-kun. We are playing well, aren’t we? There is no need for us to compromise our sportsmanship in order to win this match.”

“But we…”

But what?

‘But we’re not cheating’, he thought. If they were saved from one point by a ruling that could go either way, wasn’t that just fair compensation for playing with non-dominant hands, sweaty wigs and troublesome makeup. What was there to worry about sportsmanship?

That was how he had seen it at that moment, until Yagyuu – Niou – made him stop.

It was supposed to be different for Yagyuu, wasn’t it? For him, certain things were supposed to be non-negotiable, especially so in tennis, a gentleman’s sport. And maybe for Yagyuu, holding on to those high standards should have been all the more important now, exactly because of what they were doing, deceiving everyone who was watching.

Was that the line of thought Niou had went through, and given up the point thinking it would be important for Yagyuu? Did he think Yagyuu was that good? Even though Yagyuu himself had actually just forgotten about such things and had played and acted without thinking about anything like that just now?

While he was still trying to figure it out, the referee gave a resounding apology and announced the ball had indeed been on the line, and that the game would move on from 5-4, with Sanada and Yanagi in the lead.

Niou was smiling when he nodded at Yagyuu.

“Well, that is that. I do apologize for not being able to return that serve. But even with this setback, I still believe we can win if we just continue playing our doubles.”

Winning, by playing their doubles?

Once again, he didn’t really know if it was Niou or Yagyuu who was saying that. But maybe it didn’t matter. What mattered was that at that moment, he found himself believing in what he said. He had to laugh a bit.

“Heh. You really like doing things the hard way, don’t you.”

“Well, doesn’t that apply to you, too, Niou-kun.”

That was all the time they had before they needed to get to their positions – Niou to serve, Yagyuu to the net.

Sanada and Yanagi only needed a minimum of two more points to win, whereas they needed three. But despite their disadvantage, as he waited for the rally to start, he didn’t feel nervous anymore.

Niou knew what he was doing as Yagyuu. Yagyuu knew what he was doing as Niou.

This should work.

Finally, Niou put the ball in play. The return came back hard, Niou lobbied it back, Yanagi hit it at them, and Yagyuu’s volley landed on the edge of the court. 5-5.

This really, really could work.

The adrenaline gave him new energy. He started moving his feet, making small hops on his feet, both to be 100% ready for the return and to show Sanada and Yanagi he was not done yet. They noticed – he saw their eyes turning towards him, and that was the exact moment Niou’s second serve hit the court. Sanada and Yanagi both reacted, Sanada getting his racket on the way, but his return hit the net. 5-6.

“Nice, Yagyuu!”

For a split second, Niou’s smile was more like his own grin, but he corrected himself quickly, partly hiding his face behind a hand raised to adjust his fake glasses. “Thank you, Niou-kun.”

They were in the lead, for the first time in the tiebreak. If they could take one more point now, they would win.

If Sanada and Yanagi hadn’t been worried until now, they should have become so now. Turning to look at them, Yagyuu saw them talking quietly while Sanada was handing balls for Yanagi in the preparation for his serve. Sanada was nodding at something, and then looking at him and Niou.

Yagyuu was pretty sure some of Sanada’s favourite shots were to come. He rolled his wrists for a test. It wasn’t good – they were at their limit, not much strength left for controlling a return from a hard shot.

He and Niou both probably needed to be on the back court to cut some of the force, aiming for two handed backhands.

That’s what he wanted to tell Niou, but didn’t have the time before Yanagi got ready to serve. He could only cock his head back and hope Niou noticed and understood.

They caught the serve and sent it back, starting a rally that was more careful than some of the previous ones.

Yanagi was hitting topspins that landed pretty close to the net, not allowing Yagyuu to retreat to the back. Were they doing that on purpose, so that they’d have less chance to return Sanada’s shot when it came? If they shot it to Yagyuu at the front, he could miss it and Niou might not have the time to react. Yagyuu had a bad feeling about it, thinking it would come at any moment.

Could he break the flow of the rally and finish the point before Sanada hit it? It was risky, but hadn’t Niou told him not to care about that?

That in mind, the next time the ball came to him, he went for a drop shot.

It looked like Yanagi had been expecting just that. He reached for the ball and sent it past Yagyuu, leaving his own side open, practically calling for a laser.

Yagyuu looked back, only to see Niou was delayed with his prep for it. He could hear from the impact that the hit was off somehow, and sure enough, even though it was fast, it was incomplete. It went past Yanagi, but Sanada was there.

It was coming, Sanada’s full power shot. He needed to go back - -

Yagyuu’s voice stopped him.

“Stay there!”

It wasn’t one of the hard ones. The shot spun and dropped down close to the net. Without any time to think, he hit it back with pure instinct, and within seconds, the ball was suddenly past both Sanada and Yanagi.

“Seven five! Game and match, seven games to five, Yagyuu-Niou pair!”

The club members started talking and clapping. Sanada and Yanagi were looking at each other.

It was over. They had won. Against two of the current strongest players in the team.

Yagyuu was out of breath from the rally when he turned around. Niou was the same, walking towards him.

He was smiling. Not too much – Yagyuu had that thing about remaining respectful to the opponents who had just lost, didn’t he – but just the right amount. It looked so right.

If Niou was going to be that diligent about his role to the end, then so was Yagyuu – and Niou was too cool to get all excited, wasn’t he? He lifted his racket against his left shoulder and put his hand in his pocket.

“Puri. Another win for us, huh?”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry about the delay with this chapter! Got caught up with Japanese working life... Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this last full chapter.

While Sanada didn’t seem very talkative after the match ended, Yanagi was calm as usual, asking Niou and Yagyuu to stay a while for congratulations and feedback. Afterwards, Yagyuu would have been ready to leave the school straight away, but Niou insisted that they shower first.

It was impossible to avoid attention in the club room – a lot of people seemed to want to talk to them about the match just now. Niou was replying politely, trying to tone down some of the more enthusiastic club members by complimenting Yanagi and Sanada’s play instead. Wanting to get out sooner rather than later, Yagyuu brushed off most of the guys trying to chat with him. Niou was just being way too slow, so in the end Yagyuu had to grab him by the wrist to drag him out of the club house.

He let go when they were off the tennis club grounds, finally away from the other club members. His hand freed up, Niou corrected his glasses, clearing his throat.

There had been no way to switch back to themselves in the clubroom, so they needed to find a place to do that next. That, and maybe to talk. Yagyuu fixed the tennis bag on his shoulder, and kept his voice as Niou’s.

“So… wanna go do a debrief?”

Niou nodded.

“I was going to suggest the same myself. Shall we go to our usual place?”

The karaoke booth?

They hadn’t gone after the fight they had had there. 

It felt like so long time ago. Had it been a month already? In the lingering rush of the match, it felt even more distant than that.

“Yeah, ok. I really want a drink right now.”

Their plan decided, Niou chuckled as they got started towards the school gates, showing no intention to drop the role yet.

“You are aware they will only serve us soft drinks, I’m sure.”

“It’s the thought that counts.”

“Is that so.”

Yagyuu glanced at Niou. He was being so mellow and composed, even after what they had just achieved. 

“We’d deserve something better after that game though. We were fucking awesome.”

“We did play a good game, didn’t we.”

Niou definitely should have told Yagyuu off for the language there, but he didn’t. He was just smiling. Fighting against the urge to mirror the expression, Yagyuu continued.

“Your laser is getting pretty good.”

“No, it is still lacking. But Niou-kun, you did well on reading the game.”

“But you read the last one right. I was gonna get it wrong.”

“Yet it was you who returned the ball, weren’t you?”

The walk to the station wasn’t all that long, but once they got started with talking and became excited, they actually got through quite a lot of their match analysis on the way – which rallies had been the coolest, which techniques had worked, which needed more practice, what to do about Yanagi’s feedback. Yagyuu even found himself making suggestions for the next time they would do the switch training, and Niou was saying yes.

It was only when they got to their destination close to the station and started ascending the stairs to the karaoke establishment that his immersion into his role as Niou started breaking down.

Following a couple steps after the Niou that looked like Yagyuu, he remembered the last time he had walked those same stairs after the fight they had had there. At that time, he had been angry, disappointed... and alone. He remembered, but somehow didn’t fully connect to it. Maybe because he was still partly Niou now?

He would be back to himself soon, though, and so would Niou.

Once that happened, Yagyuu knew he had some things he would need to say. 

When they arrived to the reception, it was still Niou who took care of Yagyuu’s customary lines, clearly articulating their order at the counter.

“One hour for two students, please.”

They did everything they normally did, just the other way around. Niou paid for the booth, Yagyuu took the drinks for them; Niou held the door open for him, Yagyuu went in first. As always, the lights in the booth were too bright and the karaoke equipment was already on, flashing a welcome message on the screen and playing takes of the currently popular songs. 

Everything was the same here. Perhaps with the exception of themselves.

It was when Niou shut the door behind them that he dropped his role, marked by the return to his own way of speaking.

“Haah, we’re done.”

Strange how relieving it was to hear that voice only after few hours of listening to him speaking in another voice. Yagyuu cleared his throat before answering as himself.

“Indeed we are.”

Yagyuu set down the drinks and his bags, and then rolled his shoulders to go back to his normal posture. Meanwhile, Niou slumped down on a recliner, seemingly totally out of energy. Like often before, he looked strange in such a relaxed state while still in Yagyuu’s appearance. When Yagyuu smiled at the sight in amusement, sitting down on the sofa across from Niou, the other boy picked it up and grinned.

“So, we did it.”

“Yes, we did.” 

“No one noticed. Just like I said.”

“It does seem that way.”

Niou’s expression looked pretty triumphant. Yagyuu tried to keep his own a bit more subtle.

Niou reached out to take his drink, before getting comfortable on his seat, leaning against one of the armrests and lifting his legs on top of the other. His eyes were alive behind the glasses when he looked at Yagyuu.

“You know, I could think you weren’t excited if we hadn’t already talked on the way. You said we were ‘fucking awesome.’”

Yagyuu was about to lift his hand to fix his glasses, but realising he was not wearing them, swiped at the light hair on his forehead instead. “Mind you, I was not talking as myself at that point.”

“But you thought so still, right?”

“... Well, I do honestly think we did well.”

“Good, because we totally did. I mean, I knew we would, you just took your time to get it.”

Niou looked satisfied. So satisfied that Yagyuu didn’t even feel the need to fight him about the small criticism that came with his words.

“Well, you can consider me convinced.”

Yagyuu reached for his own drink. Niou was still looking at him when he settled back on his sofa, and when Yagyuu raised an eyebrow at him, he cocked his chin as if to urge Yagyuu on.

“Come on, talk. How was it? It was your first switch at the club, I bet you have more to say.”

“Well…”

It was true – he did have a lot on his mind.

It really felt like ages ago when they had last spoken, and Yagyuu thought it would have been difficult to start again. But now, after the whole afternoon and everything that had happened, and perhaps with the leftover adrenaline from their victory, he found he did want to talk. Moreover, he wanted to talk honestly, without being too vague or polite.

After you let someone be you in front of your friends and teammates, it seemed like you might as well let that person know what you really thought.

Niou was asking about the switch, so that’s where Yagyuu started from.

“Honestly, Niou-kun, I was rather nervous at first, despite all the practice until now. Especially being face to face with our team members.”

“Yeah, I figured. But you did good. I told you before, you make a decent actor.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. What else?”

“Well, I was also rather shocked at the turn that the practice took with the match we were made to play. I have to say I was not quite prepared for the afternoon to go as it did.”

Niou nodded. “It went kind of hard mode.”

“Yes. But, as we already talked on the way, the end result was better than expected.”

“Right? Since this went so well, we’re now totally fine to use it for any match in the tournament this summer. There won’t be many harder matches for us out there.”

“I suppose so.”

“But I wonder how pissed Sanada is. He’s gonna hate reporting that to Yukimura.”

Niou’s wondering sounded a lot more mischievous than empathetic. Having experienced Niou’s dynamic with their vice-captain from his point of view today, Yagyuu understood better than before where he was coming from.

“Well, let us hope Yukimura-kun will nevertheless be happy to hear of our results.”

“Why wouldn’t he be? He wanted us to improve, so he should be pleased.”

That was probably true – even if the path they had taken wasn’t quite what Yukimura had been talking about.

However, Yagyuu didn’t want to get into a discussion about that just now. Not about Yukimura, the talk they’d had about “synchro”, nor the fight and all the awkwardness they had gotten into because of that. The time to think and talk all of that through was better left for later.

Instead, Yagyuu had something else he wanted to tell Niou after the happenings of the day. Things he hadn’t been able to express during their talk on the way from school to the karaoke place, when he had still been Niou. Something he’d felt and thought when they had been on the court today.

He straightened his back and looked directly at Niou.

“Be that as it may… Niou-kun, I do want to properly thank you for the game today, as myself.”

Niou was about to reply, but Yagyuu wanted to elaborate.

“I think our cooperation on the court was very good, and the end result really was a great achievement. Taking into account we managed that in each other’s roles, I am very positively surprised at our performance.”

Niou listened to him quietly at first, but then cut him off, waving his hand in a belittling gesture.

“Uh, yeah. I thought it was good too. You don’t have to get all… that, about it.”

So, Niou was getting awkward about any serious talk again? But Yagyuu still had more to say, and once he had gotten started, he didn’t want to stop yet. Now that he finally had this chance.

“No, please hear me out for now. Another thing I wanted to tell you is that I had fun playing this way with you. Of course, you have much more experience in these impersonations, and some of them may be for rather different use. Nevertheless, I think I could understand the appeal a bit more today.”

Yagyuu had been skeptical about the whole idea in the beginning, and even when he’d said yes to it, his reasons had been pragmatic at best. The fact that he had gotten this into it was a surprise for himself, so he thought it was important to say.

And, if he was really being frank…

“As things have been somewhat strained lately, I was perhaps not the most enthusiastic about doing this experiment at this time. But in the end, I am glad that I had the opportunity to do this switch and play with you like this today.”

Uneasy as he looked, Niou did manage to look at him for the most of the time Yagyuu was speaking.

“Yagyuu, um…”

Niou had sat up on his recliner, weirdly leaning against the legs he had hoisted up on the armrest. As collected as he had been earlier on the day when he had played his role as Yagyuu, and besides still wearing the same appearance as then, with the brown hair and glasses hiding his own features, he now looked rather unsure of what to say.

By now, Yagyuu had well understood Niou just wasn’t comfortable with this kind of talk. Even throughout their preparation for the switch, Niou had maintained a certain distance, a certain limit to what to share and what not to. When Yagyuu had realised that, he had been angry about it.

But it wasn’t just for him to decide what was the right way or pace for them to do things, was it? Yagyuu had gotten carried away with his own thinking of it, deciding that if Niou didn’t conform to it, that meant he didn’t want them to friends like Yagyuu did. But with everything that had happened in the game today, and with some things even before that – like how Niou had still kept practicing with him, talking with him, using Yagyuu’s photo as his profile picture on Line – Yagyuu was becoming ready to admit he might have been wrong about some things. 

He still hoped they could have handled their disagreements in a better way – himself included. He did believe it would have helped if Niou hadn’t avoided him and they had been able to talk about it all sooner. But to make that happen, probably he himself should have done some things differently too.

Having realised all that, he found he wasn’t angry anymore. After having been Niou, and having Niou be Yagyuu, he thought he understood it all a little bit better. It was just that Niou was a little different from him in some things.

It was probably funny that that was the conclusion he had ended up with. For anyone looking at them from the outside, they would undoubtedly have been more surprised to hear it if Yagyuu and Niou were the same.

In any case, Yagyuu wasn’t going to start saying all of those things to Niou just yet. Not after he was just starting to rethink and maybe understand. He didn’t want to make the same mistake as before, speaking about something too heavy too soon or without thinking it through first. Maybe someday he would, when he was more sure, or when Niou seemed more ready for it.

But still, he did have a bit more he wanted to convey about the events of the day. Even if he was probably making Niou uncomfortable by saying even this much.

“I am sorry for this monologue, but finally, I wanted to thank you for the way you conducted yourself as me today. I thought it was all around well done. But I especially appreciated what you did during the tiebreak, regarding the ruling of that one unclear point. That was very thoughtful of you.”

When Niou had done that, and once Yagyuu had thought it through, he had felt… respected, he realized. And that had made him feel good. And perhaps because he was feeling good, he had been able to forget about some of the stubbornness that had made him take distance from Niou. That’s why it was now possible for him to say these things to Niou.

Though by now, he really thought he should stop, before Niou got too anxious and ran away again. He slightly bowed his head with the last words.

“So, thank you, Niou-kun.”

There. He had said what he had definitely wanted to say.

Niou, for his part, had kept quiet through the end, and though he had maintained a cautious expression, he had kept his eyes on Yagyuu. After he saw Yagyuu was done, he half sighed, half laughed, and leaned back on his sofa.

“You know, Yagyuu… When we started this thing, I didn’t expect you to get this sappy about it.”

He was… sort of smiling. Yagyuu took it as a good sign.

“Sappy? I am just being honest.”

“Yeah, I know you are.”

He didn’t say more immediately, and Yagyuu let him take his time. Niou was looking at somewhere other than him, thinking. Finally, he spoke up again.

“That point you mentioned… I thought it might lose us the game. But I guessed it wouldn’t have been you if I’d let that go.”

Really? Yagyuu listened to him carefully, and wanted to confirm something.

“So, that means you did not really believe in what you were saying as me, then. About winning with our doubles despite losing that point.”

Niou shrugged.

“Well, yeah. I wasn’t sure. It put us in a bad situation. And the match was damn difficult already.”

“That was my first thought, too, as Niou Masaharu," Yagyuu said. “But ultimately, the fact that you did and said what you did that gave me a lot of confidence in our play.”

“Huh.”

On the court, Yagyuu had assumed Niou had been confident about the choice, and about the two of them being able to win.

Hearing that had not been the case could have been a disappointment. But just then, that wasn’t what surprised Yagyuu the most.

It was that Niou was talking. He was admitting to having been uncertain about something.

He was saying he had been willing to risk losing the match, if it was needed to stay true to being Yagyuu.

Niou was looking at somewhere around Yagyuu’s knees. The glasses had slid slightly lower on his nose, and the longer strands of brown hair were coming off from behind his ear, hiding a part of his face.

At that moment, Yagyuu wished Niou would look at him directly. And that he would say more. He wanted to hear more of what this person in front of him was thinking.

And he wanted to see Niou as himself.

As if to touch his ponytail, Niou brought his hand up to rub at his neck. Then, he continued.

“Hmm… Maybe it was for the best, huh? That we played that match switched.”

Slowly, Niou’s eyes turned back to Yagyuu. The fluorescent lights of the booth caught subtly on the glasses he was still wearing, but didn’t hide his eyes.

Maybe Niou was right. No matter how close to the real thing each of them had aimed for on the court, with the change of perspectives, it felt like something new and different had been born.

When Yagyuu nodded, the white hair framing his field of vision shifted slightly.

“I think you might be right about that.”

For a moment, it looked like Niou was searching for something from Yagyuu’s face, but before he could ask, Niou’s expression changed to a something like a grin.

“Anyway, I had fun, too. So, thanks, Yagyuu.”

“Oh.”

As much as Yagyuu had told himself not to expect Niou to say anything like that, when he heard those small words of thanks, it did feel, well, rather nice.

Yagyuu nodded again, smiling.

“You are very welcome, Niou-kun. I am glad to know you are happy, too.”

Having heard that, Niou averted his eyes again, and laughed.

“What is it?”

“You know… It still looks super weird when you say that kind of stuff looking like me.”

Yagyuu laughed, too.

“Perhaps so. But it goes for you, too, doesn’t it? Your manner of speech right now doesn’t really match with your current look either.”

“Can’t be worse than you. Looking like me and doing that super long, emotional speech…”

“Oh? What about you, on the other hand, making me look all shy like you did just now.”

“What? What the hell do you mean, shy?”

Looked like that hit some spot. Yagyuu grinned while he still could, in Niou’s looks.

A year ago, words like “shy”, or “reserved”, wouldn’t have been words he would even have considered using for Niou. And for sure, a year ago he couldn’t have thought to tease him about it, either.

They might not have been words he would ever use in describing Niou to someone else. Besides, Yagyuu still didn’t think he had the full picture of who exactly this Niou Masaharu was. After all, it didn’t seem like that was something he could find out even in a year of tennis practise, a few karaoke sessions and sleepovers, several switches, just one shrine visit and one amazing tennis match.

Well, their third year at Rikkaidai was only about to start. And at least when it came to tennis, Yagyuu thought they were ready to start the new season and aim high. Whether with each other, or as each other. 


	14. Chapter 14

The next evening, Yagyuu was just finishing a song when both of their phones lit up at the same time on the small table of the karaoke booth. Niou picked his up to check it out.

“What is it?” Yagyuu asked while he was setting the mic down.

Finished with reading something, Niou put his phone back on the table, leaned back on the sofa, and looked at Yagyuu.

“So, maybe I should have told you before, but I’m actually from Takamatsu.”

“Oh? While I’m happy to learn that… Where is this coming from, suddenly?”

“Just felt like it was the time.”

As if Yagyuu was supposed to believe something like that. There was definitely something else.

He picked up his own phone, and saw a notification from Line.

Yagyuu and Niou had both been added to a new chat group for three people. The third person was the one who had put it together: their captain, Yukimura Seiichi.

He had sent a message.

 _‘Niou, Yagyuu, congratulations on your victory yesterday. Well done._  
_Yanagi tells me you are working on something interesting._  
_I’m looking forward to seeing it, so please perfect it by the time I’m back. ^_~‘_


End file.
